hi,
im installing A 5 1/4" floppy drive so i can take the data off a whole bunch of big floppies i have lying around....well i have the drive but when i hook it up with my 3 1/2" (the same cable) it says it has some kind of problem on boot-up and it can't recognize either drive. when i hit f2 it moves on and boots properly.....anything i should know about 5 1/4" floppy drives?
Thanks. you guys help alot

You need to change the BIOS setup as well. The A-drive is set to 3.5"/1.44MB. The B-drive must be set to 5.25"/1.2MB drive. Use the up/down or pageup/pagedown keys when in BIOS to change it.

thanks ...ummm

Thanks,
But when im in the Bios i can only see the A:drive and not the B: drive ....so I was wondering if i have to do anything special to be able to see it? also i was wondering if my motherboard is compatable. its a asus p4g533.\
thanks

You are not supposed to see the B: drive, you are supposed to set it to 1.2MB manually.. It is under the basic BIOS settings usually.

hi

thanks but....i dont exactally see a jumper on the 5 1/4 drive....i see the little thingies that im not sure what are called that hooks up to the cable and i see the power plug hole. what hooks up to the cable (im not sure if you call floppy cables ide or what) looks simular to the connector side of a pci card if that makes any sense..... well thanks for your help.

You'll also need an older type of combined floppy-cable, the connector after the cabletwist, at the end of the cable, goes to your A/3.5", and the PCIslot-lookalike connector goes onto the B/5.25".
AFAIK there are no jumpers to be set.
If you can't get such a cable, or find one with only PCIslot-lookalike connectors, set your BIOS A-drive to 5.25 and connect the 5.25 drive to the connector AFTER the twist, at the end of that floppy cable.

Look at this picture to see the difference, the bulky connector on the left goes to the 5.25" drive.
http://store.a2zcable.com/pcl28.html

I can't remember my last 5.25" drive, some 8-10 years ago I guess.
Didn't know they had any jumpers (what for, Drive Select?)
One of my early PCs had a 4-floppy adapter-card, I think I still have that somewhere.

thanks

k, thanks now i switched the cables around and I dont get the error message when i boot up but i cant seem to access the 5 1/4" floppy from "my computer" but the 3 1/2" seems to be working fine.
any help?? thanks a bunch

If it does not show up in Windows Explorer, go get TweakUi for XP from MS.
The B-drive might be UNticked in the 'My Computer' tab.

hmmmm

hey,
thanks for all your help. but i get the 5 1/4" drive past the BIOS with no problem but it doesn't even show up under the hardware manager and i already made sure it was ticked

I seem to remember the older floppies having the twisted cables. Any good computer salvage store should have it. Too bad I'm no longer in the business full time. I'd probably send you one at cost.

Has it occurred to you that the 5.25" drive might be defective?

I also seem to remember the lifespan of 5 1/4 floppies was really bad. It could be that he's having a hard time reading the disk if the drive is working. - that's the key ... is the drive being recognized now?

Some things to check for 2nd floppy install

I'm new to this forum so this may be moot, but a few things I would do to check if the 5 1/4" FDD works would be:

1) Disconnect the 3 1/2" FDD and connect the 5 1/4" FDD to the same connector. Make sure you have the 1 pin orientation correct. Adjust the BIOS setting accordingly. If you can get the drive to work then that's one problem out of the way.

2) If you do have the option to ENABLE a second FDD then attach the 3 1/2 to the middle connector. Typically the first FDD is attached to the end connector and the second FDD to the middle connector. Once again check the BIOS setting.

3) Some new motherboards do not have a option for two (2) FDD. It was a surprise to me, but its true! You may not be able to attach a second FDD to the motherboard without installing an adapter card...if they make them. I have no experience with USB floppy drives, but this might be a solution.

I hope this helps.

If memory serves me right the 5 1/4 drive had a totaly different connector so this won't be possible.
The leads I remember had 4 plugs on them. The top 2 were for the A drive, then there was a twist in a couple of the wires and then 2 connectors for the B drive. I would imagine you won't get the beast to run unless you manage to unearth one of these old cables from somewhere.

Connector problem

I forgot about that small detail. I still have one or two of these old cables just in case I ever need one. Let me know if you need one. I also remember that there was an adapter to fit the 3-1/2" FDD (pin style connector) to the flat finger style cables and/or maybe the other way round. I'll take a look to see if I have one.

I know this is an old post, but it might help someone else, like I just figured it out today- there are two sets of each connector, a 5 1/4 and a 3 1/4 at the end, and the same further down the cable- you know how you were wondering why the hell they put that 3 1/4 connector so close to the 5 1/4 connector? because your not supposed to use both- u use one OR the other, not both -the 5 1/4 is supposed to be connected the the OTHER connector further down the cable, closer to to mobo, which are the b connectors, and the 3 1/4 drive goes at the end of cable, A connectors. took me awhile to figure out also, so dont feel dumb