I was working on installing a new HD, and my Floppy drive doesn't work anymore. When I try to access it, I get a device is not ready error. When I start the computer without a floppy in the drive, it boots up, but the little light on front is on, and when I stick a disk in, it starts trying to read it, but it never stops...keeps on turning and turning, and the light never goes off.. I have tried 3 drives in my computer, two behave like this, and I think the other one is just completely dead as nothing moves. But, this third drive was verified as working properly on a different computer...any idea what could be wrong? I have also tried to switch the cable out...

The ribbon cable for the floppy drive is plugged in the wrong way around. And in case of this cable, two wrongs don't make one right, i.e., the plugs have to be the right way around on both ends of the cable.

I don't see how this is possible seeing as how both of my floppy cables are keyed. Also, It stopped working without me unplugging it from the drive, just from the Mobo, and I checked the alignment, the red stripe IS plugged into pin 1 on the Mobo, but it is on the other side of the floppies, and I can't plug it in the other way because it is keyed...

Trust us, we've made the same mistake before, and those symptoms describe exactly that one cause. And I could have sworn the plug is keyed...

ok, that solved one problem(forced the plug on, even though it was keyed). But now that It looks like it's behaving normally, I'm getting Input/Output errors(Linux) and "The system cannot read from the specified drive" errors in windows...Seems like my solution can't be as simple as switching a cable.....I'm reminded why I don't like upgrading...just build a new computer when yours gets old...