Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Floppy disk drive cale

0 helpful
5 replies

by noorazman

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Can anyone explain to me why the floppy drive cable being teared (twist?) at the drive end ??
Is that a mark for A: drive ?

5 replies

by thechas

The early floppy drives used hardware jumpers or switches to select which drive was drive A: and drive B:

As the PC evolved, the manufactures removed the switches, and added the twist to the cable to create a "cable select" system for floppy drives.

In a dual floppy system, the first connector from the motherboard end is the B: drive, then comes the twist, and the A: drive connector.

I actually have a floppy cable that has 6 connectors on it!
Controller (motherboard)
Tape Drive
B: 3.5"
B: 5.25"
A: 3.5"
B: 5.25"

Anyone remember hard sectored 8" floppy disks?

Chas

by hereinoz

8" floppies?? Wow, Chas, the first business computer I ever saw had two of them - one for the system and the other for data. The RAM on that machine was a massive 128Kb of hard wired RAM.

Thanks for the memories!

Alan

This discussion is closed to new replies.