External floppy drive compatibility Toshiba...pinout?

I have a Toshiba 7140CT laptop.
I need to boot it from a floppy drive.
I have a Toshiba PA2652 floppy from an older Toshiba,
but it has a wider connector and won't plug in.
But I do have a cable from an HP floppy
that does plug into the laptop on one end and the floppy ont he other.
Also have an IBM floppy with an attached cable that mates with the
Toshiba laptop.

I'm afraid to power it up.
Is there any chance that the pinout is compatible?
If I had the pinout for the laptop connector, I could check it out
non-destructively.

I don't want to smoke a working laptop.
Thanks,mike
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"mike" <spamme9@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:8wKgi.2633$YS.1410@trnddc03...
>I have a Toshiba 7140CT laptop.
> I need to boot it from a floppy drive.
> I have a Toshiba PA2652 floppy from an older Toshiba,
> but it has a wider connector and won't plug in.
> But I do have a cable from an HP floppy
> that does plug into the laptop on one end and the floppy ont he other.
> Also have an IBM floppy with an attached cable that mates with the
> Toshiba laptop.
>
> I'm afraid to power it up.
> Is there any chance that the pinout is compatible?
> If I had the pinout for the laptop connector, I could check it out
> non-destructively.
>

The safe course here is to assume the pin-out is not the same until you
prove otherwise. As far as those two manufacturers are concerned, it is
most likely that they are not the same.

Toshiba has only used two plugs that I know of, they differ (as you
note) in width. Frankly, the easiest solution is to buy a used Toshiba
floppy drive with the correct connector on E-Bay. It will cost $10 or less.

DO NOT use a floppy from one vendor with another vendor's laptop unless
you KNOW that it will work. You could destroy the laptop itself (and
possibly the ENTIRE laptop, not just the floppy port). There is no
guarantee that the pinout is compatible and it might be catastrophically
incompatible.

PS - Consider the possibility that this laptop might be bootable from a
bootable CD.



mike wrote:
> I have a Toshiba 7140CT laptop.
> I need to boot it from a floppy drive.
> I have a Toshiba PA2652 floppy from an older Toshiba,
> but it has a wider connector and won't plug in.
> But I do have a cable from an HP floppy
> that does plug into the laptop on one end and the floppy ont he other.
> Also have an IBM floppy with an attached cable that mates with the
> Toshiba laptop.
>
> I'm afraid to power it up.
> Is there any chance that the pinout is compatible?
> If I had the pinout for the laptop connector, I could check it out
> non-destructively.
>
> I don't want to smoke a working laptop.
> Thanks,mike