I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that there is some way (I/O cards? Adapters? Connectors?) to add internal floppy drive to a motherboard that does not offer it. Anyone know about this stuff? Also, what about eSATA and FireWire...is there way to add either/both to motherboard through SATA, USB 2.0, or IDE...using I/O card, adapter, or whatever?
Adding additionals to motherboards
- Thread starter Codaeus
- Start date
External usb floppy drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821103402
However, floppy drives aren't that reliable anymore and neither are the floppies themselves.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821103402
However, floppy drives aren't that reliable anymore and neither are the floppies themselves.
Thanks but...
from what I've been told on other forums, external floppy drive will not work. Apparently in certain emergency situations, XP Pro absolutely requires floppy disk, and everyone seem to think it will accept only internal one. Already tried to weasel out of it by asking about substituting CD, flash drive, and lastly external floppy drive (I really didn't want to waste slot on this), but sounds like there is no option. So question stands...is there way to add internal floppy drive to custom build if motherboard doesn't offer it?
Secondly, is there way to add FireWire and eSATA to build if motherboard doesn't offer it (if so, this would give me a greater range of motherboards to choose from!)? I vaguely recall seeing somewhere about adapters or cards or something that does this, but can't find my way back to that site!
from what I've been told on other forums, external floppy drive will not work. Apparently in certain emergency situations, XP Pro absolutely requires floppy disk, and everyone seem to think it will accept only internal one. Already tried to weasel out of it by asking about substituting CD, flash drive, and lastly external floppy drive (I really didn't want to waste slot on this), but sounds like there is no option. So question stands...is there way to add internal floppy drive to custom build if motherboard doesn't offer it?
Secondly, is there way to add FireWire and eSATA to build if motherboard doesn't offer it (if so, this would give me a greater range of motherboards to choose from!)? I vaguely recall seeing somewhere about adapters or cards or something that does this, but can't find my way back to that site!
TrainTrackHack
VIP Member
You should only need the XP install disc, it comes with pretty much all the tools one would need to recover a broken system if there is any hope of recovery. The only scenario I can think of where you would absolutely need floppies is when you simply can't use the installation CD because you don't have one or because your CD drive is broken/unable to be used as a boot medium/non-existent or such.
Such expansion cards do exist but I don't come across them very often.
What exactly are you trying to achieve?
The actual only time a floppy drive is needed (but not really cause you can always slipstream the drivers into a new install cd) is when you are trying to install XP onto a raid array or a drive configured as ahci. But the preferred way is to actually create a new XP install cd by slipstreaming the correct drivers into a new install cd and do away with floppy drives totally.
Or you can forgo XP and upgrade to windows 7, which is the latest and greatest OS and will accept drivers from cd/usb flash drive.
Or you can forgo XP and upgrade to windows 7, which is the latest and greatest OS and will accept drivers from cd/usb flash drive.
An external one will work fine.
Guess I should admit from the start...
I'm a newbie and understand little of this. That said, I asked question long ago on various forums as to whether or not I have to include internal floppy drive in my custom build. The consensus was that its required for XP Pro. Now I got no real idea what "emergency situations" someone meant, as no details were given, but tentative Google search turned up a lot, including :
1. A bootable floppy disk is required to create a restore disk for antivirus or backup software.
2. On older OS's like XP Pro, you "still need to use internal floppy for drivers that need to be loaded at beginning of an install."
3. Some motherboards will "only read the BIOS flash from an internal floppy drive."
4. If BIOS has boot block it will "run a floppy drive from which you can run a flashing program. If your BIOS is corrupt but it has boot block, it will boot your PC to floppy."
There were lots of other hits, but I've no idea what is or is not relevant, so won't waste forum space quoting possible minutiae.
Anyway, right now I'm just trying to get definitive answer for:
1. To keep XP Pro (and maybe Windows 2000 & Windows 98) up and running, do I absoultely have to include floppy drive in this build?
2. If yes, does it absolutely have to be internal floppy drive (i.e. no external floppy drive, CD, DVD, flash drive, etc., will suffice)?
3. If yes, is there way to add internal floppy drive to motherboard not having it?
I'm now looking at motherboards, and which ones I can eliminate and which ones I can consider depends on these answers.If I don't have to have floppy drive at all, or can use external one, then problem solved. If I absolutely must have internal floppy drive, that limits choices to only a few....unless there is way to install internal floppy drive on motherboards lacking it.
As for eSATA and FireWire, I do require these. Now if they can be install on motherboard lacking them, I got loads to choose from...if not, that eliminates all the motherboards not having one of both.
I'm a newbie and understand little of this. That said, I asked question long ago on various forums as to whether or not I have to include internal floppy drive in my custom build. The consensus was that its required for XP Pro. Now I got no real idea what "emergency situations" someone meant, as no details were given, but tentative Google search turned up a lot, including :
1. A bootable floppy disk is required to create a restore disk for antivirus or backup software.
2. On older OS's like XP Pro, you "still need to use internal floppy for drivers that need to be loaded at beginning of an install."
3. Some motherboards will "only read the BIOS flash from an internal floppy drive."
4. If BIOS has boot block it will "run a floppy drive from which you can run a flashing program. If your BIOS is corrupt but it has boot block, it will boot your PC to floppy."
There were lots of other hits, but I've no idea what is or is not relevant, so won't waste forum space quoting possible minutiae.
Anyway, right now I'm just trying to get definitive answer for:
1. To keep XP Pro (and maybe Windows 2000 & Windows 98) up and running, do I absoultely have to include floppy drive in this build?
2. If yes, does it absolutely have to be internal floppy drive (i.e. no external floppy drive, CD, DVD, flash drive, etc., will suffice)?
3. If yes, is there way to add internal floppy drive to motherboard not having it?
I'm now looking at motherboards, and which ones I can eliminate and which ones I can consider depends on these answers.If I don't have to have floppy drive at all, or can use external one, then problem solved. If I absolutely must have internal floppy drive, that limits choices to only a few....unless there is way to install internal floppy drive on motherboards lacking it.
As for eSATA and FireWire, I do require these. Now if they can be install on motherboard lacking them, I got loads to choose from...if not, that eliminates all the motherboards not having one of both.
Last edited:
You do not necessarily need a floppy drive. With XP, you only need a floppy if you are installing the OS to an AHCI/RAID configured drive. You don't need an internal floppy; a USB floppy will do just fine. Windows 2000 and 98 don't need floppys either. But then again, why would you want to use any of those 3 OS' when there is Windows 7?
However, should you prefer to go with an internal floppy controller instead of USB you could always get some kind of PATA card with a floppy slot on it. Same for eSATA and Firewire; you can just get PCI/PCI-e expansion cards with those ports on them.