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PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition
book

PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

by Robert Bruce Thompson, Barbara Fritchman Thompson
July 2003
Beginner to intermediate content levelBeginner to intermediate
874 pages
38h 13m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Working with FDDs

Keep the following issues in mind when working with FDDs:

Choosing

3.5-inch HD FDDs are $10 commodity items made by several manufacturers. We prefer the Teac FD235HF, but there is little difference between brands. Buy whatever is offered. 5.25-inch FDDs are still available, but that won’t last forever. If you need a 5.25-inch FDD to rescue data on old disks, get the drive now. If you patronize a local computer store, check there first. They may have a stack of old 5.25-inch FDDs they’d be happy to give away or sell cheaply.

Installing

5.25-inch FDDs require a 5.25-inch half-height, externally accessible drive bay. 3.5-inch FDDs can be installed in an externally accessible 3.5-inch third-height bay, or, by using an adapter, in a 5.25-inch half-height bay. The BIOS automatically detects installed FDDs, but can determine type unambiguously only for 5.25-inch HD (1.2 MB) FDDs, which spin at 360 RPM rather than 300. For other drive types, older machines assume 360 KB or 720 KB and newer systems assume 1.44 MB. Use BIOS Setup to confirm that the drive type is configured correctly.

Cabling

If you add or replace an FDD, also replace the cable, particularly if it is the original cable. Manufacturers often fold and crimp the FDD cable for improved cable routing and airflow. An old cable that has been so treated is no longer reliable, especially after you disturb it to install the new drive.

Change Line Support

All but the oldest FDD controllers use line 34 for Change Line ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 059600513XErrata Page