Revision no.

: PPT/2K804/04
PPT/2K403/02

Floppy Disk Drive

 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

Introduction

Common devices used

for most data storage

• Magnetic tape

• Floppy disk

• Hard disk

• Optical disk like CD

ROMs.

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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

Floppy disk and its structure

• 3.5 Inches 1.44 MB floppy disk

• The disk is soft, thin and round made of Mylar or some other
plastics material coated with a magnetic medium.

• It is this magnetic medium that stores information in the digital

form (0’s and 1’s).

• The entire disk is covered by a hard plastic cover that protects

it from external damage that could be in the form of moisture,
dust or other magnetic fields.

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Floppy disk and its structure (contd.)

• This hard plastic cover has a small rectangular opening at one

corner that has a small plastic tab fitted in it. This is called the

"write protect" of a floppy.

• When the diskette is write protected a user cannot write or

erase any information on the diskette. He can only read from it.

• The floppy disk is organized into concentric circles which are

called tracks.

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Floppy disk and its structure (contd.)

• Each track is divided into pie shaped sections

called sectors.

• Group of sectors are called as Block

• Group of Blocks are called as Clusters.

Boot sector, File allocation table

(FAT), Root directory structure

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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

Floppy disk and its structure (contd.)

• All sectors hold the same amount of data i.e. 512 bytes.

• For storing data space is allocated as needed in groups of

sectors called clusters.

• A floppy disk, also called diskette's, has two sides.

• Data can be written to or read from either side.

• The first side is identified as side 0, and the second as side 1.

• The mechanism that actually performs the reading and writing

operation is called the read/write head.

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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

Floppy disk and its structure (contd.)

• The disk is logically divided into system area and data area

• Physically the system area starts from sector 1 track0 and

continues on to some part of track1.

• The data area follows after the system area.

• The operating system uses the system area

• The data area is used to actually store the data.

• Data area is larger than the system area.

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Floppy disk and its structure (contd.)

• The system area is further sub-divided into the following

• Boot sector consist of

– Bootstrap routine

– BIOS parameter block (BPB).

• The bootstrap routine checks to see if the disk contains a copy

of the two system files, IO.sys and Msdos.sys.

• The bootstrap reads these files into the memory and transfers
the control to the IO.sys.

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Floppy disk and its structure (contd.)

• The BPB holds the information about the disk’s physical

characteristics which is used by the device driver.

• FAT is the part of the system area that the DOS uses to keep

the track of files stored in the disk.

• FAT is so important that DOS creates two copies of a FAT.

• If one gets corrupted DOS uses the second copy.

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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

Information contained in the BIOS parameter block

in the boot sector.

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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04
Illustration of how FAT entries are
chained together

• File A starts in cluster2 and then

continues in cluster8.
• The entry of cluster8 points to
cluster11, which in turn points to
cluster12, where the file ends.
• This file is split-up into four clusters
• Three of which are not in sequence.
• File B is less fragmented, occupying
clusters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,9 and 10.
• The entry for cluster7 points to cluster
9, where the file continues. Cluster9
points to 10 which contains the EOF
value.
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Illustration of how FAT entries are

chained together (contd.)

Various entries which contain the following information about

files and subdirectories in the root directory follows after FAT.
File name 8 bytes
Attribute 1 byte
Time of creation 2 bytes
Note :
Starting FAT entry 2 bytes
The Capacity of a
Extension 3 bytes floppy disk can be
Reserved 10 bytes calculated as :-
Date of creation 2 bytes No. of HEADS x
No. of TRACKS x
File size 4 bytes No. of Sector x
No. of Bytes/sector.

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Illustration of how FAT entries are

chained together (contd.)
Different types of diskettes used in PCs.

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Mechanical parts of a floppy disk drive

• Read/Write Head

• The read/write is built around a core of soft iron.

• A coil of wire is wrapped around this core.

• This coil is actually tapped in the center, so that it behaves as

if it were two separate coils.

• When the control circuits want to write something on the

diskettes, they send a current through these coils.

• This creates electro-magnetic lines of force in the soft iron

material.
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Mechanical parts of a floppy disk drive (contd.)

• The “air gap” at the bottom of the core acts to focus this force

on the oxide layer on the surface of the diskette.

• This creates a magnetized spot on the oxide layer.

• When the control circuits want to read from the disk, the

process is reversed.

• As the magnetized spots pass under the head they induce

lines of force in the soft iron core, which then create tiny

current in the coils of wire.

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Mechanical parts of a floppy disk drive (contd.)

Head Loading Mechanism

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The 3. 5 inch drive clamping mechanism

• Hold the disk assembly firmly in position.

• First, slides the disk onto the drive.

• A metal plate is suspended above the disk assembly.

• When the disk is inserted, this plate is lowered, clamping the

hub of the disk against the top of the drive motor.

• The motor-control circuit turns the motor on and off.

• As the motor turns, a sensor detects its speed and reports

back to the control circuit.

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The 3. 5 inch drive clamping mechanism (contd.)

Disk clamping

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The Drive Control Circuitry

• Designed around a large IC called a Floppy Disk controller IC.

(IC -765)
• The FDC is connected to the data bus of the main computer.
• When the computer wants to write something onto the disk, it
places the data onto the data bus and strobes the Write
Enable line.
• The FDC converts the 8-bit parallel data to stream of serial bits
on the Write Data line.
• The computer strobes the Read Enable line when it wants to
read from the disk.

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The Drive Control Circuitry (contd.)

Signal description for FDC to FDD interface.

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The Drive Control Circuitry (contd.)

• Sensors

• Write-Protect
– Prevents the drive from writing to a disk when a disk is Write-
protected .

– Usually, the drive includes a switch which can sense the status of
a Write-protect opening on the case of the disk.

• Track 0 detector
– It is tripped when the head is reading the outermost track on the
disk.
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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

The Drive Control Circuitry (contd.)

• Index sensor
– Generates a pulse each time the disk completes a revolution.

• Disk change sensor

– Used to tell the control circuits when a disk has been inserted into
the disk drive.

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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

Floppy Disk Drive Cable

• All floppy disk drives are connected to the motherboard's

external data bus by a 34-lead ribbon cable.
• Early PC BIOS logic was developed to recognize one or two
floppy disk drives.
• Floppy disk drive is installed on the end connector (near the
twist) is logically designated as the first or primary or A drive
by the BIOS.and
• The drive attached in the middle of the cable is always the
secondary or B drive. The BIOS will not recognize a B drive
unless an A drive is physically installed.

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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

Floppy Disk Drive Cable (contd.)

• If you ever run into a situation with a two-floppy system where

you want to turn the A: drive into the B: drive or vice versa,
you can accomplish this easily through CMOS settings.

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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

Troubleshooting Floppy Disk Drive

• To resolve a problem when a floppy disk drive stops working,

the steps are
– Check the floppy disk.

– Check for data errors on the disk.

– Check the CMOS setting.

– Check the floppy controller.

– Check the cable.

– Replace the floppy drive.

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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

Creation of basic boot disk in Windows 98

• One can create the boot disk graphically or by using the

command prompt.

• Using the command prompt

– Insert a floppy disk into the drive.

– Give the command

FORMAT A: /S

• Graphically it can be done in Windows 98 as

– Open the Control Panel, click Add/Remove programs, choose
Startup Disk tab, and select the Create Disk Option.

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 Revision no.: PPT/2K804/04

DOS Errors

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Design & Published by:

CMS Institute, Design & Development Centre, CMS House, Plot No. 91, Street No.7,
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www.cmsinstitute.co.in

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