Floppy Drives

Saturday, May 17th, 2003

This week let us discuss the primary drive for most computers, the floppy drive. Today this is possibly the most under rated drive on your system and few people actually use one, until the need arises. Often this drive is the key to enter the system when all else fails, using a boot disk. So, I recommend you keep the floppy drive clean and working.

Floppy drives tend to wear out after only a few years, most especially if the computer is not in a sterile environment. Dust accumulates in the drive, heads wear down and the systems occasional seeking of a disk will limit the life. Replacing this drive is today a cheap cure for most things that go wrong, considering they cost under $20 wholesale. Brand names do count with floppy drives just like other components and I have found Teac to make the best drives available.

Replacing a floppy drive is only a matter of removing the case cover, removing the screws holding it, popping the ribbon and power cable loose, then placing the new one in it’s place. Remember to replace the ribbon cable in the same direction as you found it, though if the drive is a different brand you may need to reverse it. This is on a trial and error basis.

The CMOS settings for the drive should not need to be changed, since nearly all floppy drives installed for the last four or five years are 1.44mg/3.5″ drives. Only if you are upgrading to a different format, such 2.88mg or a Superdisk, 100mg drive will you need to worry about changing your CMOS settings.

Okay, you have installed your new floppy drive or for what ever reason you have removed the ribbon cable on an existing drive, then reconnected it. Now, when the system goes through the POST phase, the initial startup, you receive an error message, “NO FLOPPY DRIVE.” The first thing to consider is the cable is not connected tightly. Checking this, you find the error continues, then you have the cable installed backward or not cleanly on all the drive’s pins. First check to see if the all pins are in the floppy drive connector. Then, we remove the ribbon cable from the floppy drive and turn it over so the red stripe on the cable is on the other side.

Typically, unless the drive is bad to begin with, this is the solution to this problem.

One final thing to mention, that is repairing floppy drives. I have heard this one, from time to time. Why can’t we just repair it? The truth here is that new drives are so cheap and have been for so long, no one even considers it any more. They are a disposable item. When it wears out, you replace it or even when it starts to just not read disks clearly. It is too important to have a good working floppy drive in your computer to waste time with a malfunctioning drive.

Tech Tip of the Week

A very inexpensive item is the the Floppy Drive cleaner disk, usually under $2.00. You can buy these in computer stores, parts stores, stationary stores and more. I recommend if you are using your floppy drive to any extent, use a cleaner disk regularly. The annoyance of making a quick floppy disk to transport data and then discover it cannot be read when you arrive does not need to exist. Just a little regular maintenance will save you a great deal of frustration. Remember the brand name of the cleaner is not important, since they are all fairly much the same. Have fun Bob