The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    CD/Floppy Cable: are they bootable?

    Discussion in 'Panasonic' started by picoshark, Nov 19, 2007.

  1. picoshark

    picoshark Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    19
    Messages:
    145
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Can you boot from it? My CF-28 doesn't have CD or floppy, and other than upgrading BIOS, or installing OS I don't really need or want one. I see CF-VCF271 on Evilbay fairly cheaply.

    My BIOS only has choices to boot from floppy/CD/HD (no USB). I know of the cable select/master issue on putting in a regular CD.

    I will never be listening to audio CDs or watching movies, just want to be able to boot from it occasionally.
     
    picoshark, Nov 19, 2007
    #1
  2. GrandAdmiral

    GrandAdmiral Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    16
    Messages:
    445
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    You may need to connect a USB CD/Floppy device before it will show up in BIOS. If it doesn't show up then its likely your BIOS doesn't support USB. An update may fix this but i'm not sure. It wont hurt your computer to try an updated BIOS though, as long as you get the right one

    Grand Admiral
     
    GrandAdmiral, Nov 19, 2007
    #2
  3. tough-2-go

    tough-2-go Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    493
    Messages:
    759
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    The floppy will boot with that cable connected to the LPT port but I don't think it is designed for the CD-ROM drive. The cable just let's you use both CD-ROM (in the media bay) and floppy drive on the paralell port.
     
    tough-2-go, Nov 19, 2007
    #3
  4. gravitar

    gravitar Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    120
    Messages:
    976
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    You're probably looking at my listing :) you can boot from a regular floppy attached to the cable, but not an LS120 floppy or CDROM drive.
     
    gravitar, Nov 19, 2007
    #4
  5. picoshark

    picoshark Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    19
    Messages:
    145
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    No, I don't think it's your listing. The first reference I ever found to this cable was on ebay, and it had wording to the effect of "I don't know, but my techs tell me this can be used for CD as well". I know that it's very differing connections, but thought perhaps since Panasonic had a proprietary connector in the MP that it split off for CD and floppy, perhaps the cable could as well. The picture didn't look like it had both floppy and IDE on it, however.
     
    picoshark, Nov 21, 2007
    #5
  6. gravitar

    gravitar Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    120
    Messages:
    976
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    gravitar, Nov 21, 2007
    #6