Need your HELP! Today I had to reinstall my operating system and low and behold my A:/ drive is not working. I have replace the drive and still nothing. My Hard drive and CD rom are showing up when I go into the BIOS, but are also not reading. I downloaded a Fresh copy of Dos 6.22 which is what I normally deal with on this PC. I even tried replacing the Jumper Cables from the mother board to the A Drive, and still Nothing. This is really bugging me. The PC is a Home Brew by the way.

Reply

Is it possible that your missing the drivers for the A Drive? Also did you try your A drive on another computer to see if they work? Also check to make sure to see if you connections are connected securely and see if the wiring is burnt exposed in any way. Also check to see what your boot sequence that could be another problem. Also did you get any Post Errors at all (series of beeps)?

Now correct me on this did you say your hard drive and CD-Rom are not reading? If so could be a problem with your motherboard.

Reply

So sorry maybe I was not clear. forgive me.
The Floppy drive is not reading. It lights up and is spinning but NOT reading the disk.
Long story here and not really worth the credits.
The CD Rom and Hard Drive are both seen during start up and on the BIOS.
I will admit it here, I am not too bright when it comes to things with a PC, but learning slowly.
I tried 2 differnt Floppy drives and get the same problem. As for the CD rom and HD can not boot from there as of this writting due to not having a bootable CD handy.

But I had been told that a Floppy drive for a older 8 yrs or more. Did not need a driver due to it was already in Bios. "shadowed"
Maybe the person that told me that knows about as much as I do, dont know.

This is just something that I like playing with, by the way. Too much time on my hands.
Going to get a bootable CD this weekend so who knows.

TY

Reply

hmmm... Have your tried the floppy drives on another computer, as it almost sounds like they are damaged in some way or more importantly the reading mechanisms. To be honest, I say forgot the A drives and get your self either 2-3Gb flash stick or a External Hard drive that is connected with a USB connection. As floppy drives are pretty much useless unless the machines are like 15-20 years old, but even then who would be running a machine that old. Unless you really need to use a floppy drive then I would recommend getting a USB version of it, and they are pretty cheap, like this one.

so you have some good options to replace your floppy drive, but for back up and restoration purposes your better off with a nice big external hard drive, usually double the size that way you have plenty of room to have a full back up of your hard drive.

Reply

If the reading light for the floppy stays lit during the boot up, meaning it does not perform "seek" drive where it makes a quick motor noise, there's a good chance that you have plugged floppy cable backwards.

The quick rule of thumb is that the first pin faces the power connection side. The first pin is usually indicated with red color. This side must be facing the power connection cable. If this is how you set in the first place, try reversing the connection.

Reply