[RESOLVED] Drive Assignments

[higle]

Hey everyone--

Got a question for someone wiser than I. I've gotten an older PC recently, a 486sx running Win95 and an old version of AMI bios. It has 5.25" and 3.5" floppy drives, but the 5.25" is set as the a: drive. That sucks, and I can't figure how to change the drive assignments to flip the b: and a: drives around. Can anyone help?

Confused, as usual,
Jason

[AlienDyne]

Hey Jason. This situation isn't as bad as you think.

Do the following:
Enter the BIOS setup.
Go to BIOS FEATURES SETUP. In there, you'll see an option saying: SWAP FLOPPY DRIVE.
This is probably set to DISABLED. All you have to do is set it to ENABLED.
Exit BIOS, saving the changes you made and this is it.

Hope this solved your problem.




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[higle]

Well, phooey. It looks like the BIOS is so old on this machine, that feature isn't present. Is there anything I can do to rewire the IDE connections, or something? Maybe I should update the BIOS; then again, that would cost money, and I'm not sure if it's even worth the bother. It's just frustrating, ya know?

Jason

[Nayak]

Change the jumper settings on drives Master and slave and use straight (untwisted cable) cable. Try your luck!

[clauded]

hi only thing that you need to do is to plug the end (twisted)on your 3.5floppy and the other one on the 5.25,these old machines all had the 2 connectors at both places,cheer`s
Clauded

[higle]

Hey, Guys!

It's still a no-go. The connections aren't the same for the two drives! I can't switch 'em around, and there's nothing in my BIOS that allows me to adjust anything for the floppy drives. I thought maybe there just might be something I could do to, say, remove the 5.25" drive (cos I don't need it) and maybe rearrange some drivers or something to make the computer think that damnable thing never existed and realize that, "Hey, I should make this 3.5" drive the A: drive!" Sorry to keep you guys on this.

Jason

P.S. In case you're wondering why I'm so gung-ho about all this, I'm *trying* to install a Linux partition on the thing, and the setup program is such that it won't work with a 5.25" A: drive. I'm about to chuck the monstrosity in the dump, to recover some self dignity. All of your help is much appreciated

[clauded]

hi don`t give up yet,go to the nearest pc.repair shop,if they have been in bussiness for some time they weill have cables with the connectors to make your 3.5 floppy the a:drive good luck Clauded

[higle]

Hi everyone--

Good news; got the dang thing fixed. I realized the problem was the floppy drive cable, not anything else. I ran down to CompUSA and got one with the right connections, threw that puppy in, worked through a little hardware conflict, and got it to work. Thanks everyone for the input! Look out Linux, here I come!

Jason (Dorkus Majoris)