360K floppy drive puzzle/problem

[asoces]

Hello all!

I have just added a 5.25" 360K floppy drive to my modern PC (AMD Athlon 64) in order to easily move files to my IBM 3270PC. The drive is recognized by the BIOS OK, and I can even boot up DOS 3.2(!) using the drive. The weird thing is that the activity light never comes on. The LED itself is OK, because I did have the cable attached the wrong way at first and it was on all the time. The cable I am using now is keyed, so I'm positive it's all connected correctly.

The biggest problem is that when I'm in Windows XP, I cannot read any disk that I put in the drive. I get the following error:

"A:\ is not accessible."
"The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error."

It is a Panasonic JU 455 5 AAB drive and I've tried moving some of the jumpers around on it, to no avail.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Mike Chambers]

windows xp is not capable of reading 360 KB drives/disks. it wasn't designed too. understandable considering how old they are, but i find it annoying because i don't really think it would have taken much effort at all to support them by microsoft.

you will have to either use an older version of windows, or do what i do - use winimage to work with them. it is incredibly annoying. first you will have to have winimage read the whole disk, then you can modify the files on it... THEN you have to write the new disk contents.

 

[asoces]

OK, thanks. XP has no problems reading my 720K disks, so I just assumed it would read 360s too. Does Windows 2000 read 360K disks?

Anyone have any suggestions about the activity LED not lighting up when the drive is connected properly?

 

[ashbourn]

windows xp is not capable of reading 360 KB drives/disks. it wasn't designed too. understandable considering how old they are, but i find it annoying because i don't really think it would have taken much effort at all to support them by microsoft.

According to Microsoft they are
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q309623

I have found getting older floppy drives working in new systems hit or miss. I sometime try a couple till I find one that works. Just because one works on one comp does not mean it will work on another.

This thread his some info
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=12191&page=2

Joe

 

[Mike Chambers]

According to Microsoft they are
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q309623

I have found getting older floppy drives working in new systems hit or miss. I sometime try a couple till I find one that works. Just because one works on one comp does not mean it will work on another.

This thread his some info
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=12191&page=2

Joe

interesting, i didn't know that. i'd heard multiple times it didn't. yeah i guess it must just be picky about the drives.

 

[Mike Chambers]

Hello all!

I have just added a 5.25" 360K floppy drive to my modern PC (AMD Athlon 64) in order to easily move files to my IBM 3270PC. The drive is recognized by the BIOS OK, and I can even boot up DOS 3.2(!) using the drive. The weird thing is that the activity light never comes on. The LED itself is OK, because I did have the cable attached the wrong way at first and it was on all the time. The cable I am using now is keyed, so I'm positive it's all connected correctly.

The biggest problem is that when I'm in Windows XP, I cannot read any disk that I put in the drive. I get the following error:

"A:\ is not accessible."
"The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error."

It is a Panasonic JU 455 5 AAB drive and I've tried moving some of the jumpers around on it, to no avail.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

i'm sure you did this, but just in case... did you change the floppy type in the BIOS and specify that it's a 360 KB?

 

[per]

windows xp is not capable of reading 360 KB drives/disks. it wasn't designed too. understandable considering how old they are, but i find it annoying because i don't really think it would have taken much effort at all to support them by microsoft.

you will have to either use an older version of windows, or do what i do - use winimage to work with them. it is incredibly annoying. first you will have to have winimage read the whole disk, then you can modify the files on it... THEN you have to write the new disk contents.

There is also another option:

If you can boot from the floppy, boot in DOS (any version that support 3.5" drives), copy the contnent of the 360KB disks over to 3.5" disks, and then you can read the files in Windows XP (from the 3.5" floppy).

If it is nessecery to work with a hard drive (from DOS), make a FAT partion using windows XP's disk utility (however, be carefull if you do)

*Edit*
Talking from my own experience: Never move around jumpers unless absolute neccesery. The FDD controller configures the speed/datarates automaticly. If you got a 1.2 HD drive, set it up as a 1.2 HD drive in the BIOS.

 

[asoces]

Thanks for all the suggestions and info.

Yes, the drive type is set correctly in the BIOS.

Unfortunately, my 3.5" drive is a USB drive, so copying to it in DOS isn't going to work. My motherboard only supports one floppy directly.

I think someone had previously changed some jumpers around because it wasn't working for me at all initially. It was set to DS (drive select) and 02, but changing it to DS 01 didn't help. I had to switch it from DS to MX. I tried changing another jumper from DA to UA to see if the LED activity light would come on, but that didn't seem to do anything.

If it's more likely that Windows XP will work with a 3.5" drive, then I wonder if I could hook my 3.5" directly to the motherboard (it is a full-size drive connected to a USB controller board), and hook my 5.25" drive to the USB controller board (using a power supply line for power).

Hmmmm... I'll let you know if that works.

 

[Trixter]

windows xp is not capable of reading 360 KB drives/disks. it wasn't designed too. understandable considering how old they are, but i find it annoying because i don't really think it would have taken much effort at all to support them by microsoft.

Windows XP reads 360K disks just fine (using 1.2 MB drive over here).

 

[per]

Windows XP reads 360K disks just fine (using 1.2 MB drive over here).

Which service pack of windows XP do you have installed (1, 2 or 3)? IDK if that has anything to say, but maybe. Some stuff is more incompatible with service pack 3 than with service pack 1 (like "Robot Arena 2")...

 

[Yzzerdd]

I had an eMachine a few months ago, and it had Windows XP SP2. Read 360K disks just fine on the 1.2MB floppy drive I had in it. Also wrote to them dandy.

Yeah, I keep hearing people say their older disks are unreliable or "hit or miss." I've only had about 3 5.25 disks go bad on me. I think it has to do with the conditions they were kept in, and the geographical area they were contained in during their life. High humidity in cool, dark places are BAD BAD BAD for ANYTHING to be kept in. Mold, mildew, and many other issues can arise in places like that.

--Jack

 

[Trixter]

Which service pack of windows XP do you have installed (1, 2 or 3)? IDK if that has anything to say, but maybe. Some stuff is more incompatible with service pack 3 than with service pack 1 (like "Robot Arena 2")...

It has worked with all service packs.

Windows XP supports 1.2MB drives which read and write both media (with the usual caveats of writing to a 360KB disk in a 1.2MB drive, of course).

It does not support 360K drives.

Put a 1.2MB drive in the system and try again

 

[Druid6900]

I have one of those 1.44/1.2 dual floppy units in my main current computer and it doesn't seem to have a problem reading, writing or formatting lower density disks (with the right software). The systems I use them in don't seem to have a problem reading them either.

 

[carlsson]

Windows XP supports 1.2MB drives which read and write both media (with the usual caveats of writing to a 360KB disk in a 1.2MB drive, of course).

It does not support 360K drives.

BINGO!
That is what I've tried to say a couple of times, based both on my own experiences and what others have found out on this and other forums around the world.

If you want to use a 360K 5.25" drive, you seem to be limited to Windows 95/98/Me (I suppose) or NT4. Windows 2000 may have been the first version to remove support for those drives, and as far as I know there are no 3rd party drivers that will re-add it to the system. Some drivers exist to get better control over the FDC but they don't fix the hardware issue.

 

[asoces]

OK - it turns out the 360K drive was flaky anyway. I installed it in an older Pentium PC and it gave occasional errors when I tried to read disks, and completely destroyed any disk I tried to write to.

Based on the discussions here, I now have a 1.2 Meg drive on the way. Hopefully this work to get files transferred to my vintage PC.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

 

[PC1512SDCM]

This might be too late and might not be the problem but I seem to remember that if you have a cable that supports two drives, you have to get the order the right way around depending on the drives jumper settings. i.e. the connector in the middle of the cable might be for the first or second drive. Get it wrong and it may/may not work to some extent or the led might not operate.

It is even possible to have the cable the wrong way around so the wrong end connects to the motherboard.

 

[Agent Orange]

5 1/4" 360K Floppy Drive

5 1/4" 360K Floppy Drive

If by chance that 360 "low density" floppy came from a Tandy computer, there are dip switch setting on the Tandy drives to denote "A" or "B". Also, check your drive's data cable. If you are running from the mobo to the drive, and the drive-side connector has a "twist" on about 7 wires then your unit will be a "B" drive - if its straight through then you will be an "A" drive. Check your BIOS and make sure your have selected the correct drive type and that you have properly identified it as "A" or "B" and /360/1.2/etc.

Today I installed a 1.2 MB (high density) 5 1/4" floppy in my box with a Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H mobo and AMD 6000+ Black cpu. This mobo only supports 1 floppy and defaults to the "B" drive. However, you can still use a USB floppy as you wish, and it will come up as the "A" drive. Bottom line is that I'm running Vista Ultimate with SP1 and Vista sees it, reads and writes, and the light works.

Good luck!

Agent Orange