Floppy Disk Drives

The following set of notes corresponds to the Floppy Disk Drive module of the PC Repair course, providing students an outline of the information they are expected to understand. The corresponding reading for this module is chapter seven of All In One A+ Certification Exam Guide by Michael Meyers, pages 294-302.

Floppy Disk Drives

• Modern floppy disk drives use a 1.44 MB high density disk, which is distinguished by the HD printed on the disk as well as by the two square holes, one in each of the lower two corners.
• In DOS and Windows, a floppy drive will be assigned the drive letter A: or B:.
• The drive letter assigned to a floppy disk drive depends on where that drive is connected on the data cable. The drive on the end of the data cable will be drive A:, the one in the middle will be drive B:. If you have a single drive and install it in the middle of the cable, it will be drive B:. However, these letters can be switched in some CMOS setups
• Floppy drives use 34-pin data cables that have a twist between the two plugs, or plug pairs.
• Power is supplied to most floppy drives through a mini connector.
• Pin 34 on the floppy cable is the drive change signal wire, indicated to the computer that a new floppy disk has been inserted.
• After installation, a floppy drive must be configured correctly in CMOS.
• Whether or not a computer boots from the floppy disk drive can usually be set in the CMOS setup. Turning this function off will result in the computer ignoring any disks in the floppy drive when it boots up.
• Floppy disk drives are designed to allow a disk to be inserted only one way. If a disk does not go all the way in, it may be turned the wrong way.
• A floppy disk is write protected when both holes are unobstructed (open). To remove write protecting, cover the hole on the front left, either with the slider on the disk or with tape.
• Floppy disks will work without the metal covering on the case. If this covering is damaged, data may be copied from the disk before the disk itself is discarded.
• Floppy drives are prone to collecting dirt, causing them to fail more frequently than any other component on the computer. For this reason, floppy drives should be cleaned regularly.
• Imation's 120MBSuperDisk and Sony's 200MBHiFD are drives capable of reading regular floppy disks as well as reading and writing to higher capacity disks. These drives work with the IDE interface instead of the floppy disk cables, however, and will be connected conforming to standard IDE procedures.