Floppy into a Dell

[RLBeldon]

This is a physical mounting question.
Please send me in the the proper direction
if c.s.i.p.h.s is not the right newsgroup.

I bought a Dell 4700 w/o the 'A'drive.
I have an extra floppy and cable to install.
I discovered that although Dell does provide
a front slot position, there is no support
bracket or shelf to slide the floppy drive into.
Is this Dell proprietary or only sold as
a set(floppy and hardware) from Dell?
Any cheap third party sources?

Or should I just forget it and buy a USB floppy?
Don't laugh. I still find floppies somewhat useful.

Thanks. rbeldon at niu dot edu

 

[Rod Speed]

This is a physical mounting question.
Please send me in the the proper direction
if c.s.i.p.h.s is not the right newsgroup.

alt.sys.pc-clone.dell may get a quicker answer.
I've added it to the newsgroup list.

I bought a Dell 4700 w/o the 'A'drive.
I have an extra floppy and cable to install.
I discovered that although Dell does provide
a front slot position, there is no support
bracket or shelf to slide the floppy drive into.
Is this Dell proprietary or only sold as
a set(floppy and hardware) from Dell?

Have you tried asking Dell ? or
https://support.dell.com/support/to...s/en/system_accessories?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Any cheap third party sources?

Havent noticed any, but I havent looked either.

Or should I just forget it and buy a USB floppy?

Cost a bit more and may not be as useful if you cant boot from it.

Don't laugh. I still find floppies somewhat useful.

For what ? I dont use them at all anymore myself.

 

[Arno Wagner]

This is a physical mounting question.
Please send me in the the proper direction
if c.s.i.p.h.s is not the right newsgroup.

I bought a Dell 4700 w/o the 'A'drive.
I have an extra floppy and cable to install.
I discovered that although Dell does provide
a front slot position, there is no support
bracket or shelf to slide the floppy drive into.
Is this Dell proprietary or only sold as
a set(floppy and hardware) from Dell?
Any cheap third party sources?

Or should I just forget it and buy a USB floppy?
Don't laugh. I still find floppies somewhat useful.

You may find an USB-floppy less useful. I had numerous problems
with systems that refuse to boot from USB floppy. Cheapest
solution is possibly to go to the next hardware-store and
do your own mounting assembly.

Arno

 

[Peter]

This is a physical mounting question.

Please send me in the the proper direction
if c.s.i.p.h.s is not the right newsgroup.

I bought a Dell 4700 w/o the 'A'drive.
I have an extra floppy and cable to install.
I discovered that although Dell does provide
a front slot position, there is no support
bracket or shelf to slide the floppy drive into.
Is this Dell proprietary or only sold as
a set(floppy and hardware) from Dell?
Any cheap third party sources?

Or should I just forget it and buy a USB floppy?
Don't laugh. I still find floppies somewhat useful.

You need a bracket:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4700/sm/parts.htm#wp1054178
http://www.centrix-intl.com/details.asp?productid=804

 

[Ben Myers]

The mounting bracket for an internal floppy drive is proprietary to Dell. These
brackets are cheap and easy to come by on eBay, if not from Dell directly. One
also needs a floppy drive with the right type of button and no bezel to install
in a Dell chassis.

On the other hand, a USB floppy drive has a lot to recommend it. Just about the
only downside is if you do not like a dust catcher on the desktop. Any brand of
USB floppy drive will work. Just make sure it is USB 2.0... Ben Myers

 

[Rod Speed]

The mounting bracket for an internal floppy drive is proprietary
to Dell. These brackets are cheap and easy to come by on
eBay, if not from Dell directly. One also needs a floppy drive
with the right type of button and no bezel to install in a Dell chassis.

On the other hand, a USB floppy drive has a lot to recommend it.
Just about the only downside is if you do not like a dust catcher on
the desktop.

The other downside is getting it to boot if thats the reason a floppy is being
used.

Any brand of USB floppy drive will work.

Wont necessarily boot tho.

 

[prizm1]

This is a physical mounting question.
Please send me in the the proper direction
if c.s.i.p.h.s is not the right newsgroup.

I bought a Dell 4700 w/o the 'A'drive.
I have an extra floppy and cable to install.
I discovered that although Dell does provide
a front slot position, there is no support
bracket or shelf to slide the floppy drive into.
Is this Dell proprietary or only sold as
a set(floppy and hardware) from Dell?
Any cheap third party sources?

Or should I just forget it and buy a USB floppy?
Don't laugh. I still find floppies somewhat useful.

Thanks. rbeldon at niu dot edu

http://www.rickmktg.com/hard_drive_bracket1.htm

 

[Ben Myers]

The Dimension 4700 knows how to boot from a USB floppy drive. It's a question
of the boot order in the BIOS. Or press F12 to select a boot device.

But I'm with you. I much prefer an internal old-time floppy diskette. But they
are disappearing... Ben Myers

 

[Rod Speed]

ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers) wrote

The Dimension 4700 knows how to boot from a USB floppy
drive. It's a question of the boot order in the BIOS. Or
press F12 to select a boot device.

We dont actually know why he wants to continue using floppys,
or if the Dimension 4700 can do what he wants with a USB floppy.

But I'm with you. I much prefer an internal old-time floppy diskette.

I dont myself, I use bootable CDs and DVDs instead.

But they are disappearing...

Nope, not really. Just not standard as much as they were.

I dont usually bother to have one in a system I build anymore.

With the very rare situation now where it is still the most
convenient approach, I just plug one in loose temporarily.

 

[Sparky Spartacus]

Rod Speed wrote:


Centrix Intl has a Dell specific floppy kit, P/N 1T909 (fits Dim 2300,
2350, 2400, 3000, 4600 & 4700) for US $19.99. I bought one for my
Dim3000 about a month ago. It fits like a dream and has solved several
headaches with the 3000! In includes the Dell specific bracket, but does
not include a floppy cable - I wasn't certain the $5 one at CompUSA was
long enough so I sprung for the $7 one. It also needs a screw to secure
the kit to the 3000's chassis. IIRC I used one of the HDD screws I have
accumulated over the years.

http://www.centrix-intl.com/

Select OEM Replacement, then do a Find for "floppy" (or 1T909).

I also bought a mounting bracket for a 2nd HDD, P/N 0T962 ($9).

Service was excellent and parts fit like OEM.

 

[Ben Myers]

Makes sense. Centrix probably glommed onto some Dell spare parts when Dell
decided to no longer provide spares for some models or when Dell over-built the
number of spare parts it thought it needed. There's a lot of Dell spare parts
floating around. I bought a carton of Dell floppy kits once somewhere, to have
kicking around for local Dell owners who need floppy drives.

All the name brand computer (marketing) companies are managing inventories to
keep them to a dead minimum. Spare parts are an expensive item on the balance
sheet, to be minimized by foisting them off on 3rd party companies. The only
exception seems to be government and large corporate contracts which mandate
keeping spares for some now-ridiculous number of years, like 5 or 7 years. Even
then, when the spares get low, I see requests through 3rd party parts houses
looking for specific parts... Ben Myers

 

[Rod Speed]

Makes sense. Centrix probably glommed onto some Dell spare parts
when Dell decided to no longer provide spares for some models or when
Dell over-built the number of spare parts it thought it needed.
There's a lot of Dell spare parts floating around. I bought a carton
of Dell floppy kits once somewhere, to have kicking around for local
Dell owners who need floppy drives.

All the name brand computer (marketing) companies are managing
inventories to keep them to a dead minimum. Spare parts are an
expensive item on the balance sheet, to be minimized by foisting them
off on 3rd party companies. The only exception seems to be
government and large corporate contracts which mandate keeping spares
for some now-ridiculous number of years, like 5 or 7 years. Even
then, when the spares get low, I see requests through 3rd party parts
houses looking for specific parts...

It was always stupid to have that not standard in the case.

 

[max]

Or should I just forget it and buy a USB floppy?
Don't laugh. I still find floppies somewhat useful.

I use USB floppies on several Thinkpads, and they work fine for me.
You can keep it stuck away until you need it or leave it plugged in
full time. Mine boots from the floppy just fine, but even if it
doesn't on yours, you can just keep a boot CD on hand.

Definitely the easiest path, and will transfer to other systems if you
need it, since most new laptops and many new desktops come without
floppies. Some of us need them still.

max