Removing Floppy
Drives
- Turn the computer off, take the case off, and
remove any diskettes from the drive. - Locate the disk drive. This should be pretty
easy for most of us. - Now go about disconnecting the drive. Remove
the screws that fasten the drive to the support casing, then unplug the power source from
the back of the drive. Also remove the ribbon cable. As you do all this, keep track of
what goes where so that you can put it all back correctly. If you had a 3.5" drive in
a 5.25" drive bay, you may have to remove some brackets too. - You are now ready to install a new floppy
drive. Skip down to this section to see how. If you do not plan on replacing the one you
took out, go on to step 5. - You now need to cover up the drive bay with a
plastic panel. You may already have one that fits the drive bay, but if not you can pick
one up at a retail computer shop. - Next you need to remove the drive from the
system’s BIOS so that it doesn’t think its really there. Enter Setup, choose the first
option, called "Standard CMOS" or something like that. Then, in the section on
the floppy drive you removed, change the option to NONE or DISABLED. Save and Exit.
Installing a Floppy Drive
- Choose which drive bay you want to install the
drive and remove the face plate off of that bay. Save the face plate for future use. Pick
a bay that will fit the drive. If you have to install a 3.5" drive in a 5.25"
bay, you’ll have to use a special front panel to adapt it. This panel usually comes with a
new floppy drive. - Fit the drive into the bay without connecting
anything. Just make sure it fits. Choose the best possible fit. - Connect the ribbon cable and the power supply
to the drive. If you just removed a floppy drive, just use the same connections. If not,
study the available connectors. You should have a ribbon cable with a twist on one end.
The end without the twist is attached to the floppy controller. Then, attach the connector
after the twist to floppy drive A:. If you have only one floppy drive, then it is Drive
A:. You may have two available connectors after the twist. Use the one that fits your
drive. One is for 5.25" drives, the other is for 3.5" drives. - If you are using brackets to hold the drive in
place, secure them now. You may need to temporarily disconnect the cables. Once in,
tighten the drive in place. Double-check the connections, also checking the connections
for other drives to make sure you didn’t bump one out of place. - Now put everything back together. Plug the
system in. And turn it on. If the floppy drive light goes on and stays
on, this means that one of the connectors of the ribbon cable are
on backwards, meaning Pin 1′s are not aligned. Find which is not
aligned and flip it. If you get a Floppy Drive Fail (40) error, it
probably means the same thing…either that or the system is
looking for a drive which is not there, in which case move on to
step 6 and adjust the BIOS settings. - Now you have to tell the computer that it has
another drive. This involves updating the BIOS. Boot the computer and enter setup. This is
done by pressing F1, Del, Ctrl-Alt-Esc, or some other combination. Your computer will tell you
what keys to hit right after you turn it on. After entering setup, go to the Standard
Setup, usually the first menu option. Your main floppy drive is A: . Any second floppy
drive is labeled B:. Using the appropriate keys, activate your new drive. You may need to
type in the specs for the new drive. Most likely, it is a 1.44MB drive. Lastly, under
another menu option, you might need to make sure your BIOS drive swapping is turned off.
This feature, through BIOS, reverses the order of your floppy drive letters so that their
location in relation to the ribbon twist does not matter. But, if you installed a drive after the
twist, and this option is enabled, your Drive A: will not work.
To deactivate a drive you have removed, follow the same instructions, but change the
status of the drive to "None" or "Not installed." If you have removed
the primary floppy drive, you’ll need to change the Boot Order to "C:
Only" and disable Floppy Drive Seek. - When you are done adjusting BIOS, save the new
setup, then exit Setup. Your system should now restart and your drive will be activated.
You can test it in the Explorer or File Manager by checking a diskette.
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