# connect laptop external floppy drive to pc



## jason57874 (Nov 27, 2005)

i have an unused external floppy drive from my dell latitude notebook laying around, so l thought i'd take out the exsiting floppy drive out of my pc and replace it with a 6gb hard drive (there's no more bay in my pc case) then take the unused floppy drive as my floppy. however, when i hooked the external floppy drive onto my pc (parallel/lpt port), windows couldn't detect anything. i tried reboot, then i ran the hardware detection wizard, and still nothing. i also googled external drive driver/utility, and couldnt find nothing. 
do i need to configure something in the BIOS? 
any pointers about how to get my external floppy drive running is greatly appreciated.
PS:i really need that extra hard drive, 'cause my current HDD (also 6 GB) has only 7xxMB left x_x ....


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## please (Mar 2, 2005)

@ jason57874
Welcome to TSF :smile:
You may need to enable that port in your BIOS. It is probably under something like 'onboard device configuration>parallel port'. If you have trouble finding it, post your mobo brand and model number and I'll find the manual and find the setting.

Another option if your case has a spare 5.25" bay, you could try suspending a HDD with 'Stretch Magic' in there. I have done this many times for quieting purposes and it works very nicely


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## jason57874 (Nov 27, 2005)

sorry for taking so long to reply

my BIOS: 686T5 Date: 1999/2/10
in the BIOS screen it said it's the "compaq computer setup utility" and no version
here's a brief manual of my BIOS http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/UCR/SupportManual/TPM_215867-001/TPM_215867-001.pdf
the current setting for my parallel port in my BIOS is 
"378-37F, 778-77D, IRQ 7, DMA 3"
the other settings are:
378-37F, 778-77D, IRQ 9, DMA 3
378-37F, 778-77D, IRQ 10, DMA 3
278-27F, 678-67D, IRQ 7, DMA 3
278-27F, 678-67D, IRQ 9, DMA 3
278-27F, 678-67D, IRQ 10, DMA 3
3A8-3AF,7A8-7AD, IRQ 7, DMA 3
3A8-3AF,7A8-7AD, IRQ 9, DMA 3
3A8-3AF,7A8-7AD, IRQ 10, DMA 3
380-387, 780-785, IRQ 7, DMA 3
380-387, 780-785, IRQ 9, DMA 3
380-387, 780-785, IRQ 10, DMA 3
378-37F, 778-77D, IRQ 7
378-37F, 778-77D, IRQ 9
378-37F, 778-77D, IRQ 10
278-27F, 678-67D, IRQ 7
278-27F, 678-67D, IRQ 9
278-27F, 678-67D, IRQ 10
3A8-3AF,7A8-7AD, IRQ 7
3A8-3AF,7A8-7AD, IRQ 9
3A8-3AF,7A8-7AD, IRQ 10
380-387, 780-785, IRQ 7
380-387, 780-785, IRQ 9
380-387, 780-785, IRQ 10
378-37F, 778-77D
278-27F, 678-67D
3A8-3AF,7A8-7AD
380-387, 780-785
DISABLE
the parallel port i tried to connect my floppy drive to was used by my printer, which had no problem


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## please (Mar 2, 2005)

@ jason57874
Check your floppy's parallel connector for any bent or missing pins. Does this external floppy work on another system?

I also wonder how a floppy is going to save you from running out of space. They only hold 1.44MB/disk. There may be better solutions available.


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## Terrister (Apr 18, 2005)

I think these floppies only work on the brand laptops they come with. It has firmware to tell it that how to talk to a floppy that pluggs into a parallel port. Your desktop does not. You can get a usb floppy to do this.


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## jason57874 (Nov 27, 2005)

Problem abandoned
i found an USB floppy.
thank you all for your advice


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