ParanoidLittleMan Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 If no jumpers, then it is most likely factory preset as Drive B (1) - for PC. Then solution is to swap lines 10 and 12 on cable - talking about 34 line one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explodey Posted June 18, 2013 Author Share Posted June 18, 2013 Well I got a new cable, thanks to Rod Lightning. Unfortunately I still can't seem to get it working. I went into the bios utility at startup, and I changed an option that had something to do with floppy drives, but I really didn't know what I was doing, so I don't know if I changed the right thing. Also, someone mentioned a red stripe on the cable, but I wasn't sure which way the stripe was supposed to go. Also, ParanoidLittleMan, I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by swapping lines. Ugh... I'm starting to think this all may be over my head. Maybe I'll just take it in to a computer repair shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodLightning Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 Well I got a new cable, thanks to Rod Lightning. Unfortunately I still can't seem to get it working. I went into the bios utility at startup, and I changed an option that had something to do with floppy drives, but I really didn't know what I was doing, so I don't know if I changed the right thing. Also, someone mentioned a red stripe on the cable, but I wasn't sure which way the stripe was supposed to go. Also, ParanoidLittleMan, I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by swapping lines. Ugh... I'm starting to think this all may be over my head. Maybe I'll just take it in to a computer repair shop. The bios option you want will be something like 'enable on board floppy controller' sometimes located in 'integrated peripherals' menu. As for the red stripe, the rule with drive data cables is generally "notch top, red to right side". Hold the floppy drive unit in hand and orient it whichever way has the notch side of the connector on top. Be sure to plug in the ribbon cable with red stripe (pin #1) to the right side. Often times, the circuit board will have a tiny numeral '1' printed at one side of the connector. That also helps. I have plugged them in backwards before and the drive will just spin with a steady light shining. This is a bad thing...but I don't think it fried my drive. Maybe I was lucky because when I flipped the cable over, everything worked! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explodey Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 Thanks for all your help RodLightning. I'm looking at the floppy drive and I can't figure out which side is the notch side of the connector. It looks to me like both sides have a notch, but I guess I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I'm attaching a picture of the drive. Can you tell from the picture which is the notch side? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Pin 3 is so called key pin - what means that is missing by many drives. And it is your case, obviously. So, now you know where is pin 1 To say it again: on cable line 1 is marked with red usually (may be blue sometime) . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodLightning Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Pin 3 is so called key pin - what means that is missing by many drives. And it is your case, obviously. So, now you know where is pin 1 To say it again: on cable line 1 is marked with red usually (may be blue sometime) . Your connector does appear to have notches on both sides! As quoted above, the missing pin shows which side is pin one. The red stripe should be on that side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explodey Posted June 27, 2013 Author Share Posted June 27, 2013 Great, thanks guys. One more question: How do I find pin 1 on the motherboard? I don't see a numeral "1" on it, but there is one notch, so I assume I just go with the "notch top, red to right side" rule, right? Here's a picture. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodLightning Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 Correct. You have a standard floppy drive cable connection pictured there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explodey Posted June 28, 2013 Author Share Posted June 28, 2013 Okay, I think there must be something wrong with the floppy drive I got on eBay. I'm sure it's connected properly now, and I went into that Bios menu, and it turned out that "Enable on board FDD controller" option was already on. But my PC is still not recognizing the drive, and the light on the drive doesn't even come on. Does anyone have a floppy drive they'd like to sell me? If not, I think I'll see if someone can help me at a computer shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GadgetUK Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 You have connected the power cable to the drive as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 Do you have twisted floppy cable, and connected floppy drive to twisted part end ? http://www.pcguide.com/ref/fdd/confCable-c.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explodey Posted June 28, 2013 Author Share Posted June 28, 2013 Yes, the twisted end is connected to the drive, and the power cable is connected. I heard that it's possible to connect the power cable backwards, but it would only go in one way, so I'm pretty sure it's connected properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodLightning Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 Make sure the BIOS says "1.44MB Floppy Drive" as disk A on the main screen, usually the same page where you set the time and date. Sometimes it can be disabled there as well. Some PCs have options to enable the FDD or floppy controller, plus the other spot on the main page to select which floppies are attached...Disk A, Disk B. There might also be a third place to select boot order or enable boot from a floppy disk (not critical to access floppy disks, but just to allow booting from a floppy). If all else fails, you might consider finding a small shop where they can test your floppy drive, cable, and maybe the pc if necessary. Before spending more money on hardware, you need to figure out why the floppy is not showing up when the computer is on and operating. It might be something simple that we aren't seeing via forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explodey Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 Wow.. it's been almost two years since I started this topic, and here I am, still posting to it! Time certainly does fly. I wonder if the people who were helping me before are still around. I guess I'll find out. Here's what's up: I finally just gave up on archiving my old Atari floppies, until two days ago, when I decided to just take my PC into a repair shop, and hallelujah, they got the internal floppy drive to work! Apparently they had quite a bit of trouble figuring it out, and I'm still not really sure what was wrong, but no matter. I went back to archiving all my floppies with this Windows program called "ST Recover," and I was able to create images from most of my disks, but for about a third of my disks, the program would time out trying to read the disk and it wouldn't create a usable image. Then I realized that it was doing this with all the disks with the "HD" high density logo on them. All the disks without that logo worked fine. So I'm assuming that internal drive just can't read high density disks, and I figured that since it's a (relatively) more recent floppy format, maybe I could read those HD disks with my USB drive. But no dice... at least not with that "ST Recover" program. Whenever I try one of those disks with my USB drive, the program instantly bails out and indicates that all the sectors are bad. So what can I do? Hopefully something that doesn't involve buying another floppy drive! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Covering hole issue is already covered in this thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUN415 Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Explodey. Just spent days trying to find out what was wrong with my old ST Cubase floppys. I had about 25 of 'em and only 2 worked...I assumed it was the ol' (bad) format - long story I guess. Happened upon this thread and your last post made me check the actual floppies. DING!!! Sure enuff the ones that worked didn't have the two holes (write protect slider + the other HD hole). So it's just a matter of putting a bit of tape over the HD hole so drives read the disk as 720k Hey presto it works!!! Brilliant stuff! But I guess it points out how stoopid I am - lolzs I read...literally pages and pages about disk config and low level access etc etc...tried every app there is and yet no expert mentioned the holes - lolzs...it's just bizarre. Anyways, so happy mate...thanks again. PS> I can post a thread about the apps I found if anyone is interested??? (There's 5 main ones and some secondary ones...plus some info about floppy drivers.) Everyone on 'ere would prob know most of them but other rogues (like me) with similar problems may not - it's a freakin nightmare when things aren't working. Stay well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explodey Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 I'm not sure which issue you mean... are you talking about covering one of the holes at the end of the ribbon cable? I went back and looked over all the posts in this thread, but sadly I couldn't find any solutions. If there is one, please remind me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explodey Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Explodey. Ohh, haha.. now I get what ParanoidLittleMan was talking about! Of course, how did I miss that? And I'm delighted to hear that I helped you, Run415! It's kinda funny that you actually figured it out before I did, hah.. Anyway, I'd be interested in checking out those threads you were mentioning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUN415 Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 No probs Explodey. I knew somethin' was up...I'd expect a few errors after 20 years... but not a complete failure of 23 'looked after' floppies. Sometimes the answer is right in front of your face. Like I said...so happy now. Good luck with your disks. Er...that thread I mentioned doesn't actually exist yet...I gotta write it up and find links etc. Will post a link back here when I do it. Meantime...I got some archiving to do - lolzs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explodey Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 Well, I covered those holes on the disks and sure enough, that solved the problem. Thanks again ParaniodLittleMan! But there still is one disk that didn't generate a usable image, which I guess is to be expected, out of like 40 disks. When I open the disk in my Atari emulator, the file names are all just garbage text, and the files aren't openable. So I'm just wondering if anyone could recommend a good disk utility program for the ST so I can try to recover some of the files on that disk. I remember there were several helpful disk utilities for the Atari 8-bit line, but I'm having trouble finding anything for the ST. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 Have you tried Gemulator Explorer? http://emulators.com/download.htm#UTILITIES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUN415 Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 (edited) Not sure if this will help but mebbe worth a shot Explodey. Runs in Windows...not the Atari. (Image files may not open if they're dodgy = not valid.) = MSA Converter = This is a handy little app for viewing .ST and .MSA images once you've made them. You can save/extract a single file (or all of the files) easily from the image. As the name suggests, you can convert MSA to ST (or ST to MSA) and also check clusters and make .zip archives. http://msaconverter.free.fr/index-uk.html Edited April 19, 2015 by RUN415 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUN415 Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Here's that link I mentioned to my post on Atari floppy disk apps... http://atariage.com/forums/topic/237423-apps-for-reading-atari-st-floppy-disks/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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