Unusual FDD slot on Colorsit case - how to fit FDD?

[MilesG]

I'm about to lift a few components (A C and D drives and a couple of expansion cards) from my son's relatively old, very slow AT system onto a new faster ATX system and have just taken delivery of a Colorsit case.
The FDD bay does not have the expected 4" x 1" pop out panel, but a thin slot with an eject button. This is not disposable, but is integral with a half height face plate, which includes the on button, reboot button, speaker grill and USB port.

Do I just fit the old FDD against this slot so that the external eject button engages with the FDD button? (The housing cage has slots for the fitting screws rather than fixed holes, so it is adjustable to any depth. My worry is that it might be too deep to easily retrieve an ejected floppy.) Or are all front panels fitted to FDDs removable, in which case do I have to remove it first? Or must I purchase a new FDD that does not have a front panel?
MilesG

[Panama Red]

Your old fdd probably has the extended eject button. If so it would interfer with the case before you can get in fully inserted in the tray or , as you suggest, it would place the fdd too far inside for disk retrieval. For the price of a new fdd, I'd just get a new one.

[i486]

remove the front from the FDD. Or take a dremel to the case.

[Cricket]

On the cases that use that slot instead of having the whole floppy exposed, it'll still take a normal floppy drive with the face plate intact. The case is designed to work with a normal floppy drive so placement of the drive itself shouldn't be a problem. You'll have to play around with the position of the drive a bit so that it'll eject the floppy correctly. One thing, make sure the floppy drive isn't too far forward in the cage...if it is, it'll prevent the floppy disk from being inserted fully (because the eject button can't come all the way out) and you won't be able to read the disk. Personally, I hate those floppy drive slots...I rather use cases that expose the whole floppy drive.

Cricket

[MilesG]

Thanks for the help. What I have in the old PC is a standard FDD with face plate which lies in a standard 4" X 1" slot, with eject button that extends just 2mm or so (empty). I'll try that when we get going on the assembly and hopefully adjust it to the right depth.
I assume that my new case has what's called a "hidden" floppy drive bay. I'm, beginning to agree with Cricket - more trouble than they are worth. I suppose the two "lips" that extend 70mm or so inside off the case slot butt up against the drive when it is positioned correctly. We shall see.
FWIW I found more information at
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/directron/pana.html
but these faceless specimens do not seem to exist in the UK!
Regards to you all
Miles

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by MilesG I suppose the two "lips" that extend 70mm or so inside off the case slot butt up against the drive when it is positioned correctly. We shall see.

No, they don't butt up right to the drive...they're just there to help guide a floppy disk into the floppy drive slot. On the cases I've worked with, there is always a small gap between the floppy drive and the "lips".

Originally Posted by MilesG FWIW I found more information at http://shop.store.yahoo.com/directron/pana.html but these faceless specimens do not seem to exist in the UK!

The face plate on floppy drives are removeable. Just look for the tabs or hooks that are holding the face plate to the floppy chassis. I've never had to remove the face plate, but I've seen HP computers that have a floppy drive with no face plate used in slotted cases. With or without the face plate, it doesn't seem to matter. The important thing is adjusting the depth of the drive correctly so that the eject button will eject the floppy disk but won't interfere with how the floppy is loaded into the drive.

Cricket

[MilesG]

Thanks Cricket. No video card yet, but I might make a start tomorrow and get the mobo, CPU and Ram installed. A minor irritation with the Colorsit spacers which is puzzling, but I'll start another thread for that
Miles

[MilesG]

I didn't remove the face plate of that FDD, butted it up against the "lips" and tried that position first. Worked fine. Thanks for all the help. System's running OK now apart from chronic Code 10 error on the Marvell LAN driver.
Miles