PC won't boot off of 3.5" floppy drive
Posted by tutimes67@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 22 comments
hi, i finally got a video card for my newest project, and im encountering issues.
i get a diskette boot failure when trying to boot from a floppy disk. i have tried an MS DOS boot disk and an MS DOS 6.22 install disk (1 of 3), both give me the same error.
is there something wrong with my IDE controller? I have a single 3.5" floppy drive, a HDD (master) and a CD ROM drive (slave) connected to it, and it seems to work fine.
i know at least my MS DOS boot disk works, ive tested it.
redditshreadit@reddit
Doublecheck the cable pin one is lined up correctly. If the cable has two ports try the other port. I think drive A should be after the twist.
Tamrail@reddit
Was going to say A is after the twist and check that pun 1 is in the correct position.
shadowtheimpure@reddit
Does the drive light up? Can you hear it trying to seek? Also, the floppy drive isn't IDE and shouldn't be on the same bus as the HDD and CD-ROM.
tutimes67@reddit (OP)
the IDE controller also has a floppy connection (at least i think? its labeled FDC connector). do i need a separate floppy controller?
yes the floppy drive is functional, it seeks at boot just like i set it to do in the BIOS and i can hear it read the floppy disk before giving me the error.
shadowtheimpure@reddit
That sounds like a possible issue with the drive then. Clean the heads, make sure it's actually spinning the disk, things like that.
FDC is a separate on-board controller for the floppy drive, you've got it hooked up in the right place.
tutimes67@reddit (OP)
just tried another floppy drive, same error.
shadowtheimpure@reddit
Try using a different floppy cable then, could be a bad one.
p47guitars@reddit
Or improperly orientated
tutimes67@reddit (OP)
update : it just didnt like the MS DOS boot disk, it works fine with the install one. thanks a lot!
shadowtheimpure@reddit
Bad ribbon cables are always a possibility in the retro computing game. Glad you got it sorted!
GGigabiteM@reddit
You can still buy the crimp headers on Mouser and Digikey to repair bad cables. I've made my own IDE, Floppy and Voodoo2 SLI cables.
tutimes67@reddit (OP)
THANK YOU, now i have a different error!!
"Non-System disk or disk error / Replace and press any key when ready"
where to go from here?
Skycbs@reddit
Your disk is no good
vietnamdenethor@reddit
That's what you'd get with any non-bootable or empty disk.
tutimes67@reddit (OP)
ill try another one, but my current one seems perfectly functional
Inquisitive_Lime@reddit
It might be making the seeking noise but the actual drive belt to the “disk spinner” could be perished (if the floppy drive is not direct drive)
StopInevitable@reddit
an onboard, isa, or mca hardware boot supported floppy controller should be used if your hardware is older than 1995, I remember support getting much better around this time.
many older systems did not support boot from a ide floppy, I can only remember imation making one part of thier superdisk line and these where not super common, great for storage if you can find good media for them.
Long-Trash@reddit
floppy drives do not live on the same cable as an IDE drives. then if you were to let us know what the pc or the motherboard model is then we could likely give you some real advice rather that best guesses.
GGigabiteM@reddit
There were IDE and even SCSI floppy drives, but they're very uncommon. The most well known IDE floppy drive is the LS-120, but I really doubt the OP has one of these.
echocomplex@reddit
I have heard of this happening sometimes with early 90s machines with dead cmos batteries. Some of the stuff that uses a Dallas clock chip, like Packard Bells circa 1994 have this issue. I think it might also happen with the Tandy 2100.
countrypride@reddit
Put the actual floppy drive in another machine, one that you can boot, and see if it can read any of your floppies.
boluserectus@reddit
Burn the bootable floppy image using this method, put the floppy drive back in the machine and boot :)