Weird Floppy Problem

[JMoore]

Today I was hookling up a floppy drive to my comp and it wouldn't work. I thought it had to be the drive until I tried it in another computer. The floppy drive worked...... No LED's come on at all, and I think it has to be the connection from the power supply. I didn't even know that could happen until today. Is their any adapters I can buy to hook up my Floppy Drive? I only have one FDD connection. Does this happen sometimes?

 

[Kernel32]

No lights typically means no power. Even if you had the ide cable reversed you would still get a solid green light. Your PSU doesn't have a second floppy power connector?

 

[JMoore]

Nope, I'm screwed. Exspecially since I want to reformat tonight and need some boot disks. Is their anything I can do?

What really sucks though is that the PSU is almost brand new so I just have bad luck.

 

[Kernel32]

You mentioned that you tried it in another computer........use the PSU from the other computer temporarily until you get this one up and running. Did you also try swapping the floppy cable (you never know!) What OS are you installing? You can just boot to a Windows cd and let it do the formatting.

 

[JMoore]

I am installing Windows XP Home Upgrade Edition SP1. I have a windows 98, but the CD is scratched and it keeps freezing up (copy doesn't work either). I tried swapping the Floppy cable too. All I am wondering is if their is any adapter I can buy to make a new floppy power cable.

Edit: Does this happen often?

 

[Kernel32]

i have no doubt that any local computer supply or Compusa will have such an adapter. So i take it that you don't have access to the other computer you tested it with? Also, is there a partial install of windows on your hard drive? if so, you may still be able to use the WinXP upgrade cd....they usually only need to detect that there was a previous version of windows on the drive.

 

[JMoore]

I am running Pro right now (im on the computer I want to format), but I want to format and switch to Home on this computer and install Pro somewhere else. I could do a PS swap but I really don't feel like that tonight (tomorow I guess). Is there anyway I can reformat and not have to use boot disks or another previous Windows CD?

BTW Thx for all your help. I appreciate it.

 

[Kernel32]

well, you're limited because you only have a "upgrade" cd. You could try to run the setup from windows now and see if it will let you install Home over top of Pro...but i don't believe that will work since it will actually want to upgrade and not downgrade per se. you may be stuck until you swap the PSU. Do you need the floppy in order to install 98?

 

[JMoore]

I'll just do the PSU swap until I can call and get a new PS. Thx again. Maybe I'll try and call Comp USA tomorow too.

 

[JW310]

How are you trying to install the XP? By installing 98 first and then upgrading to XP? Or are you running the XP setup from the XP CD, and then just putting the 98 CD in when setup asks for it? You don't need to have a previous version of Windows installed to be able to install a fresh copy of XP from an upgrade CD.

JW

 

[Kernel32]

Good point JW310...it's been a while since i used an upgrade cd......but i agree.....pop in the 98 cd when it asks for previous version authentication.