3.5 floppy connectors

[Art]

I'm taking an floppy drive from my older Sony Vaio computer to install
in a new Acer. (I have a very infrequent need to access some old disks.)

I thought I could take the cable, complete with female sockets, and use
it in the Acer, but the connectors are slightly different. On the Sony
the connector to the motherboard has one female socket blanked off (pin
5, I think, on the red edge), but the Acer motherboard uses pin 3, but
has pin 5 blanked off.

I could make the cable's motherboard connector fit if I drilled out the
blanked off pin 3 socket, but if the OS actually uses either pin 3 or
pin 5 my drive wouldn't work, right?

Do I have to have a new cable with the right connectors made?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Grinder]

I'm taking an floppy drive from my older Sony Vaio computer to install
in a new Acer. (I have a very infrequent need to access some old disks.)

I thought I could take the cable, complete with female sockets, and use
it in the Acer, but the connectors are slightly different. On the Sony
the connector to the motherboard has one female socket blanked off (pin
5, I think, on the red edge), but the Acer motherboard uses pin 3, but
has pin 5 blanked off.

I could make the cable's motherboard connector fit if I drilled out the
blanked off pin 3 socket, but if the OS actually uses either pin 3 or
pin 5 my drive wouldn't work, right?

Do I have to have a new cable with the right connectors made?

It's not necessary, but I personally wouldn't want to degrade a cable by
"de-polarizing" it. Do you want me to mail you a cable?

Here's a blurb that addresses this disparity:

| On some mainboards pin 3 is used as the key (missing pin)
| and on some pin 5 is used as the key pin, while a lot of
| mainboards don"t have the key pin removed at all. This
| can all cause problems when using cables which have the
| key pin hole closed. As all odd pins are ground there are
| no technical implications in modifying such cables by
| removing the key pin closure by force.

http://pinouts.ru/Storage/InternalDisk_pinout.shtml

 

[Grinder]

Do you want me to mail you a cable?

Er, scratch that--none of my cables are keyed on pin 3. I guess it's
"drill, baby, drill."

 

[Art]

Grinder and John,

Thanks you for your quick replies.

I'll try drilling, or removing the plug, if there is one.

(I had been concerned that connecting a pin that wasn't supposed to be
connected would cause some sort of problem; but if all odd pins are just
grounds, it should be okay.)

Art
Non-Hardware Guy!