Disk2FDI

[Kintaro]

Hi there,

I recently tried to install a second floppy drive for use with
disk2fdi. So far no luck. The system reports an error at boot up. It displays "floppy disk error". At this moment the drive LED's of both drives are on. I double checked all cable connections. The cables fit only in one direction. I marked both drives as 1.44mb floppy drives in the system BIOS.
I've got some personal files on amiga disks (Programming in AMOS and Assembler) which I really like to preserve, and since I don't have an amiga anymore disk2fdi seems the only option.

Could anyone please help me how to get his working?

TIA

[jmmijo]

Hmm, well I've only seen the light stay on like this when in fact the ribbon cable is put on backwards.

Here's what you should do to verify that both drives work properly before giving up.

Power down you machine and disconnect the power cable from the back of the PS. Now carefully open the side of the case if not done so already and lay the case down on the opposite side that is open, of course you want to only open the side that you install cards and the motherboard from

Now carefully remove the floppy cable from the motherboard and from both floppy drives. Now inspect the floppy cable for any problems like a pinched cable anywhere along the length of it, also check out all the connectors for any breaks or cracks or even of the cable is trying to come apart at one or more of the connectors. This is a sign that the cable is worn and needs to be replaced!

Now if the cable passes a sight inspection you need to look at the cable and determine what connector goes where, it's easy if you follow this trick as most cables are not labeled to tell you this info

Look for a twist in the middle of the ribbon cable near one end of the cable, this is required to tell the PC which drive is A: and which drive is B:, the trick is to remember it this way:

Drive A: is after the twist and drive B: is before the twist, get it

Now then that would make the opposite end of the cable the connector that goes to the Floppy port on the motherboard then and the connector in the middle goes to drive B: and the connector after this would go to drive A:

Sometimes these cables have the older 5.25" drive connectors, they will be larger and a card edge type connector instead of the IDC type that are used on 3.5" floppy drives

I would reconnect only one drive back at a time to verify each drive will work as Drive A: by itself then try to reconnect both at the same time, I hope this helps out

[Kintaro]

Thanx jmmijo,


With your advice I finally got it to work!
I tried both drives as drive A: The internal drive worked just fine, but the external drive didn't work, the drive LED just stayed lit.
From reading you're reply I, was confinced that the cable must be in wrong direction, Although it couldn't be fitted in any other way!

So then I took another cable, without "alignments". (I don't know the English translation, but I think you'll understand)
I deliberately fitted this cable in the wrong direction, and voila, it worked!!!

Disk2Fdi is amazing software, it read all my 7-10 year old floppy discs!!

thanks again jmmijo!

[jmmijo]

You're welcome