PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Step 6: Install the Floppy Disk Drive

Modern floppy disk drives (FDDs) have no user-configurable settings. All FDDs are set in hardware as B:. Whether the drive appears to the system as A: or B: depends upon which cable position you attach the FDD to and how the BIOS is configured. Install the FDD, noting the following:

• If the case has externally accessible 3.5-inch drive bay(s), use one of them for the floppy disk drive, saving the 5.25-inch bays for other purposes. If for some reason you must install the FDD in a 5.25-inch bay, you’ll need to purchase an adapter for $5 or so.

• A standard FDD cable has three connector positions, one on each end and one in the middle. Between the middle and one end connector, a portion of the cable is twisted. The two connectors separated by the twisted portion are used to connect drives. The other end connector attaches to the motherboard FDD interface. Attaching the FDD to the connector on the far side of the twist makes that FDD A:. Connecting it to the middle connector (before the twist) makes it B:. Some cables have five connectors, with two connectors (one header-pin and one edge-card) at each drive position. These dual connectors can be used interchangeably, depending on which fits the drive. The edge-card connector was used by 5.25-inch FDDs, which are obsolete, but many adapters that allow a 3.5-inch FDD to be installed in a 5.25-inch drive bay use the edge-card connector.

• Most recent BIOSs support only one FDD, and have a BIOS setting that ...