• Install External Floppy Disk Drive

In this post Rick answers a reader's question about installing a floppy disk drive in a new computer. In this post Rick answers a reader's question about installing a floppy disk drive in a new computer.

With computers no longer coming with a floppy disk drive the user must buy and install one by himself if he wants to be able to read floppy disks. Even though floppies are less and less used you may have old (and important) data saved on floppies. In this tutorial we will teach you how to install a floppy disk drive using as example a very interesting unit from Mitsumi (model FA404M), which is a floppy disk drive with a 6-in-1 card reader embedded, allowing you to read floppies and six different kinds of memory cards.

In Figure 1, you can see the floppy disk drive we will use on our tutorial. As we mentioned, this unit from Mitsumi has an embedded 6-in-1 card reader, which can read Compact Flash (CF), Micro Drive (MD), Smart Media (SM), Memory Stick (MS), Secure Digital (SD) and MultiMedia Card (MMC) formats. Figure 1: Floppy disk drive with memory card reader from Mitsumi. Since this model has a memory card reader we need to install the cable that comes attached to the unit to an available USB header on the motherboard. So if you have a floppy disk drive without a card reader (which is the most likely scenario) just skip the parts we talk about the installation of this cable to the motherboard. In Figure 2 we show you the connectors available on a floppy disk drive.

Install External Floppy Disk Drive

Figure 2: Connectors available on a floppy disk drive. All you need to buy is the floppy disk drive (make sure to buy one that matches the color of your case, i.e., black if you have a black case, beige if you have a beige case, etc) itself and maybe a floppy disk drive flat-cable, if you don’t have one. This cable comes with the motherboard, so take a look at the boxes you have stored because this cable is probably there.

In Figure 3 we show you how this cable looks like. It is a 34-wire flat-cable using two 34-pin connectors at the ends of the cable (and optionally one 34-pin connector at the middle). The most distinctive feature of this cable is that it has a twist at one of its ends (at the end that should be connected to the floppy disk drive, by the way).

Figure 3: Floppy disk drive cable. For installing the floppy disk drive you will also need four 4-mm M3x0.5 round-head screws – a.k.a.

Short thin-thread rounded head screws, see Figure 4. These screws come with the case. For a detailed explanation about screws, read our tutorial. Figure 4: Screws that will be needed. Now that you were introduced to the floppy disk drive and to its cable, let’s show you the step-by-step guide on how to install a floppy disk drive on your computer.

Now you will install the flat-cable to the floppy disk drive. You have to be very careful here in order to not invert the cable. One of the wires of the flat-cable has a different color, indicating that this wire corresponds to the first pin (pin 1) of the connector. On the cable we used, which was black, this wire was white. The colors aren’t important, what is important is to locate the side that has a stripe using a color that is different from the rest of the cable. Then on the floppy disk drive connector you need to locate where the pin 1 is located.

Usually there is a “1” or “2” marking indicating that this is the side corresponding to pin 1. If you can’t find it, look for a “33” or “34” marking: the side with such marking is the opposite side of pin 1. So when installing the flat-cable to the floppy disk drive the pin 1 marking on the flat-cable must match the pin 1 marking on the connector, as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15: Pin 1 marking. Adult day care policy and procedure manual. Once you get the flat-cable in the correct position, go ahead and install it by pushing its connector with your thumbs, as shown in Figure 15, until the connector on the cable reaches the end of the connector on the floppy disk drive. Figure 16: Installing the flat-cable. Now you need to install the power connector. First, pull the power supply floppy disk drive connector from inside the case through the 3.5” bay that is opened, as shown in Figure 17. This connector comes from the power supply and your power supply should have one or two of them. Pay attention to pull the right connector: the floppy disk drive power connector is smaller than the traditional peripheral power connector (see the difference in size and physical aspect between the connector that is on our hand and the other connector that is located inside the 3.5” bay in Figure 16).

Figure 17: Pull the power supply connector to outside the case. If this cable is too short and you are not able to pull it to outside the case, don’t worry. Just ignore it and the rest of this step. You can connect it after the floppy disk drive is in place. We will come back to this situation on step 6. Now go ahead and install it to the floppy disk drive, as shown in Figure 18. It’s easy: push it until it reaches the end of the connector present on the floppy disk drive.

The most important thing here is to keep the notch present on the connector facing up. Figure 18: Installing the power connector. Figure 19: Power connector correctly installed.