How to silent a floppy drive?

ABAQUS888 · Post by **ABAQUS888** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:08 pm

Hi, guys

I proundly told my wife that I have silented my PC. but last night my wife said my PC is very noisy because she is using the floppy drive to save a couple of files to her floppies!

Any idea to silent it? please don't tell me throw my floppy drives out, I only use USB flash memo, but my wife's teacher only uses floppies to do examinations, is it cute?

Thanks for any help!

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 2:38 pm

ABAQUS888 wrote:Hi, guys

I proundly told my wife that I have silented my PC. but last night my wife said my PC is very noisy because she is using the floppy drive to save a couple of files to her floppies!

Any idea to silent it? please don't tell me throw my floppy drives out, I only use USB flash memo, but my wife's teacher only uses floppies to do examinations, is it cute?

Thanks for any help!

A couple of points:
(1) Cross-posting is highly discouraged around here.

See Posting Guidelines.

(2) Your best bet to quiet the FDD is to limit its use by doing something like copying the files to the HDD while working and transferring final editions back to the FDD when you are done.

(3) FDD noise tends to vary from model to model. Ralf Hutter recommends Sony. See his post in this thread -- Quiet Floppy Drive.

(4) I've found my Panasonic FDD rather quiet when placed in a properly damped case. YMMV.

(5) I highly recommend the Forum Search Feature to look for info that may have already been covered on this topic.

(6) It won't lead to marital harmony to tell her so, but it sounds like you silenced the computer and she made it noisy again.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 2:39 pm

If you search the threads you can find some recommendations on quiet floppy drives. I don't know if anyone has tried modding a floppy drive for quieter operation.

You may want to get a 32 MB USB key instead. It costs as much as a floppy drive, is much faster and can store more.

USB drives cost around a quarter a MB right now, so may not be significantly more expensive than floppies.

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 2:41 pm

lenny wrote:If you search the threads you can find some recommendations on quiet floppy drives. I don't know if anyone has tried modding a floppy drive for quieter operation.

You may want to get a 32 MB USB key instead. It costs as much as a floppy drive, is much faster and can store more.

USB drives cost around a quarter a MB right now, so may not be significantly more expensive than floppies.

lenny - He said he already uses a USB device for storage, but his wife has to use floppies for her school work.

johnc · Post by **johnc** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 7:14 pm

Has anybody tried a USB floppy drive suspended in a Smart Drive enclosure? This may be overkill...

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 8:03 pm

johnc wrote:Has anybody tried a USB floppy drive suspended in a Smart Drive enclosure? This may be overkill...

How in the world would you get the floppies in and out?!

Though I could see trying a suspended FDD (internal or external to the PC) in a NoVibes. Internal would be a bit more of a challenge to get access to the drives, but.....

johnc · Post by **johnc** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 10:14 pm

The Smart Drive features a rear cable management slot that accommodates the hard drive's power cable and a flat data cable. A floppy disk might be able to (barely) slip through that opening, but only if the foam were modified. A bit of metal might also need to be removed. The USB cable would have to be routed through the same opening or (more likely) through an opening created in the other end of the Smart Drive. The Smart Drive would then be mounted "backwards" in a 5.25" bay, with the "cable end" out toward the user.

Just a thought. This is probably not workable, but the thought might inspire a more useful approach. USB floppy drive in a foamed breadbox?

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 10:20 pm

I think the problem here is standard PEBKAC*. If that can be worked on, perhaps made to interface differently somehow, everything should quiet down. Well, the computer anyway.

* Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair

(disclaimer: above post assumed funny by author, but only on a late night after a long day

)

engseng · Post by **engseng** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 10:36 pm

You know, most of the FDD I've encountered sound a whole quieter when you put a diskette in the drive. Like the Sony FDD for instance. When it tries to run a disk and there isn't one, the noise is quite loud. But reading and writing to the disk is a whole lot quieter.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 12:02 am

aphonos wrote:lenny - He said he already uses a USB device for storage, but his wife has to use floppies for her school work.

*sigh* So sorry about that. Should have read the entire post...

To try to redeem myself - I've noticed that USB floppies tend to be quieter. The disadvantage of course is that it is an external unit.

jamoore9 · Post by **jamoore9** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 6:22 am

You'd have to enclose it because its mostly motor noise, with some vibration. But really, are you gonna fret over the floppy drive? Its dinosaur tech. Just wait until she's done with school and ditch the FDD alogether!

Although, honestly, I'd look into an IDE SuperDisk drive from Imation. I use one in my laptop at work, and if I had the cash to get one for my home PC, I would (around 70 bones on Ebay). Its noticeably faster at transfers than a standard FDD, and its a lot quiter, too. Not silent, but I imagine that some creative dampening/insulating would go a long way to making it nearly silent.

How to silent a floppy drive?

How to silent a floppy drive?

Re: How to silent a floppy drive?