using old 486 parts

dummy2001

Member
Dec 5, 2001
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I got a junk 486 to salvage parts from, and I pulled out an IBM 1.44 floppy drive and a Quantum 270mb HD. I specifically wanted the floppy, my question is, is there any reason not to use it (assuming it works)? I don't know about computers that old, but eyeballing it the floppy cable looks like it would be compatible. I rarely use the Floppy and would just as soon not buy a new one.

The HD I don't care much about, but I have room in my case and it was free. I was thinking I could give it password protection and store "artistic photos" there. I'm sure the HD access would be slow, but would it slow down the system as a whole in any way as an IDE slave? Well I just noticed it has what looks like a set of jumper pins but no cover for them, there are only 3 instead of 6, I guess I might not be able to set it as a slave. Well like I said, not a huge deal, but does it sound worth bothering with?

Thanks.
 

BadThad

Lifer
Feb 22, 2000
12,100
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You can use the floppy, those haven't really changed in years. No way I would put that hard drive into a modern system. Whatever IDE channel you put that on will slow down other drives on it. It's just no worth it IMO.
 

dummy2001

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Dec 5, 2001
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Cool, thanks. The floppy is all I really cared about. 270mb in the error of modern hard drives is silly, it just seems so strange to throw away parts that were top of the line 7 years ago.