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OptiPlex GX280 1.2mb 5.25 floppy drive support
Hi,
I've got a desktop cased OptiPlex GX280 with a spare 5.25" bay. Does anyone know if the GX280 BIOS would support an ancient 1.2mb floppy drive? I can only find Dell documentation which says that it 'supports a single floppy drive'. I guess is it probably doesn't but thought I'd check to see if anyone knows for sure.
Thanks in advance.
Zinc666
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July 4th, 2011 06:00
I've just come across a similar thread for a GX260 where a 1.2mb drive doesn't work so I guess it's not possible;
en.community.dell.com/.../17341009.aspx
UPDATE 25/08/11: It definately isn't possible... I managed to source a 1.2mb floppy drive and try it with a GX280 and it behaves in exactly the same way as the GX260 from the linked post. I guess as you can't configure the floppy drive type in the BIOS (3.5" vs 5.25") then the OS will always expect to see a 3.5" drive no matter what's physically connected.
Zinc666
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July 5th, 2011 06:00
Ah, thanks very much SpeedStep, have you tried this first hand at all? I wonder why the GX260 guy couldn't get it to work. Now I only need to source a drive from eBay...
Thanks again.
speedstep
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July 5th, 2011 06:00
Yes it would work. However you would need to get a 34 pin floppy cable from an older machine to use.
speedstep
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July 5th, 2011 06:00
All older drives from 360k, 720k, 1.2m, 1.4m work fine with the correct cable.
speedstep
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July 5th, 2011 13:00
Not tried. Have done this before. 5.25 inch floppy drives have a Drive Select jumper and a twist in the cable.
The Connector on the floppy drive end is an edge connector type not a pins and socket type.
VERY Old Floppy Controllers and ATX motherboard Floppy cables came with both types of connector and
a twist in the cable so that ALL DRIVES could be set for the same drive select signal. There is no reason to do either
because most PC's only come with 1 floppy drive not 4
http://mith.umd.edu/vintage-computers/fc5025-operation-instructions
On GX260, GX280 and some other cases you will need to remove the center Bezel for the CDROM drive bay
to fit a 5.25 inch floppy drive. Also Note the Keyway in the Drive cable. It matches up with the Red Stripe aka
PIN1 on the cable.
Zinc666
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July 6th, 2011 02:00
Great info, thanks again SpeedStep.
Regards.
bansod
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October 5th, 2013 20:00
Trying to do the same with an Optiplex GX240. I can physically connect the 51/4 floppy drive with the right cable etc, however the BIOS has no option for 5 1/4, it only has 2 choices: 3 1/2 or no floppy. So, if I put a 5 1/4 floppy in the drive and try to read it, the computer is expecting a 3 1/2 and says the media is unformatted. Does anyone know how to overcome this, change the BIOS to recognize 5 1/4 floppies?