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[ The PC Guide | Troubleshooting and Repair Guide | The Troubleshooting Expert | Troubleshooting Specific Components | Troubleshooting Floppy Disk Drives | File System Problems ]

My A: drive is actually being seen by the system as B: drive and vice-versa

Explanation: You have two floppy disks in the system. One of them is supposed to be A: and the other B:, but they show up within the system as reversed--A: is B: and B: is A:. Both drives still work, however.

Diagnosis: On a new system the usual culprit is configuring the drives incorrectly. On an existing one, it is far more likely that the drives were just set up incorrectly.

Recommendation:

  • Make sure that you connected the cable properly to the two drives. The drive to be A: goes at the end of the cable, and the drive to be B: stays in the middle of the table.
  • Watch out for the "Floppy Disk Swap" BIOS setting, which intentionally flips A: and B:, to allow you to switch the two drives without opening the case. Of course if this BIOS setting is enabled when you don't want it to be, then the A: and B: drives will be reversed.
  • Windows NT does not properly recognize the floppy swap setting. If you use it then NT may simply ignore it and cause your A: and B: drives to not be reversed when you want them to be.
  • Make sure that both disks are set up properly in the BIOS setup program.
  • Less likely, but still possible, is a problem with the floppy disk or the floppy disk controller. Troubleshoot them here and here respectively.

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