Did I wreck my Floppy drive?

[buxton bob]

I cleaned out the dust with compressed air and hooked it back up.
The floppy drive started to make a noise like a hard drive and the light is on all the time.
Its a lot quiter when i put in a disk but it wont read it.
I've disconected the drive, but need it for some programs i have to install after i do a format and install of xp.
Any suggestions would be appreciated
Thanks Rob

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I have like 15 floppy drives here and half of them don't work on my Windows XP. It could be your floppy disk that isn't working.

[buxton bob]

Thanks for your input Carbon'''', but there was no noise from floppy drive before I cleaned it out.
I dont think it is normal for the light to be on when there is no disk inserted is it?
It just sounded like a hard drive trying to find something about half speed

[CBMatt]

How old is this drive?  They tend to not last too terribly long, so perhaps it's time for a new one.

[buxton bob]

CBMatt
The drive is 2 years old same as the computer
It's only been used about 6 times
Only to save a few programs and to add a few

[patio]

They are fairly inexpensive to replace...just make sure you get the IDE cable correct or it won't work.

[buxton bob]

Floppy is now fixed
I dissabled it in bios and left it that way until i needed to use it
Thought i'd try it once more before replacing and when i powered it back up, low and behold it worked fine.
Luck smiles sometimes. Bob

[GX1_Man]

The light remaining on is frequently a sign that the data cable is backwards. Did you remove it?

[buxton bob]

No GX1
Only cleaned out the case and did'nt touch nothin inside
had it turned off in bios for like 3 weeks and then when i turned it back on all was quite and no light on. All is normal at the moment
If ya like a challenge than check out my other thread (ms 2003. lost word)
Catch ya there. Bob