finding a good use for the floppy drive space in my notebook

[pengyou]

I have a p4 compaq evo that is a very nice computer - with the exception of the fact that it weighs about 10 pounds. I don't usually haul it around with me but leave it at home.

It has a built in, i.e. non removeable, floppy disk drive that is totall useless now. I would like to take this out and install a usb hub inside or a card reader or something like that.

Has anyone ever tinkered under the hood with one of these? If there was a way to add an internal usb port I would go for it...alternatively is there any way to use the fdd interface for something?

 

[ngreenwood6]

As far as using the floppy drive for something else it is very doubtful that something has the same connector (other than another laptop but the slot for it would be different and you would have to make a connector). The slot that the floppy drive came out of can be used for, if I am not mistaken another cd drive or another battery if you so choose. If you want to add a usb port you can get a pcmcia card to add that to the laptop.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

I don't think you can use a CD or battery in a FDD slot. Even on desktops Floppy drives do not use standard IDE, instead they have a special "Floppy" port. The only thing I think you could do is use the empty space for USB hub or other stuff. You can desolder one of the USB ports off of the motherboard and solder wires to the connections, then put the circuit board from a hub in the empty floppy area.