need more help here...help with IDE

[Gumbo]

I have a very old computer that I am tring to rebuild out of sentimental value. It only has 2 ide ports, a hdd (40 pin) and a fdd (34 pinn). The computer used to have 2 floppies and a cdrom on the fdd plug, but I took off one of the floppies, making it just the cd and the 3". The cd has 40 pins and the 3" has 34, but they were both run on the same ide cable...34 pin. furhtermore, the 9th through the 16th wires on the cd connection were flipp flopped, but not on the 3". First question: why is it like this? Next problem...the 3" will not boot unless the cdrom is in line above it. When I remove the cd it just says that there is a boot error and to insert bootable media...even though the media will boot with the cd rom in the line, but the cdrom will not be recognised when the drivers are loaded up...even though the cd is plugged in. What is causing this and how can I fix the problen?

 

[corkyg]

Why not put the CDROM and the HDD on the main IDE controller tap . . . have the CDROM as slave to the HDD.

The FDC or floppy disk controller is much slower . . . so just leave it with the floppy drive by itself and see how that flies. That used to be the old standard. In fact . . . if you could get an old sound card of the same vintage, it would have a port for the CDROM drive on it.

 

[Neutroner]

kind of a stange set up. but to answer the question about the twisted wnd on the wire, it is terminator that tells the computer whatever drive is connected after the twist is the boot device. it simplified the bus network in older computers. usually, depending on the BIOS, whatever device you put after the twist will be the boot device.

 

[Gumbo]

been there, done that...the floppy still won't boot. Even if it is by itself. It does have a jumper on the back, but that just seems to tell the bios if it is drive a or b...why are the wires 9-16 flipped over? does that have something to do with the way that it boots?

 

[Gumbo]

I tried to flipp the wires, assuming that it had something to do with the boot, but it still wouldn't boot. It would, however, attempt to read the disk, which is bootable...thx for the help...

 

[Neutroner]

well whatever drive is after the twist is the A drive, is the bios set to read a 1.44 floppy? or it set to something else?

 

[Gumbo]

The 3" is the only drive in the computer at the moment...there isn't even a hd in it...the bios is set up for it on a:

 

[Neutroner]

well I normally hate to easter egg a problem , but... do you have another floppy drive to try. I mess with old 486 systems all the time and I'm suprised how picky they can be. I do have to mix and match between machines. maybe a little more detail would help? what kind of board/bios. good cable? i'm just guessing now.