🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7217@tektronix.UUCP> gregl@tektronix.UUCP (Greg Lacefield) writes:
>Can anybody out there in netland help me with the following?
>
>1) Is it possible to configure your PC system such that you have
>   disk drives named "A:", "B:", "E:", "F:", ... where there IS
>   no drive "C:" or "D:" and if so, how?

The simplest method is to set the 'number of floppy drives' toggle switches
to 4.  Yes, I know, the IBM manual only shows you positions for 1 and 2 drives.
Just carry the binary logic a little further and you will get 3 or 4 drives.
When you set the switches to 4 drives (I believe it is both switches off),
you will have floppy drives A: through D: and hard disks will start at E:.
Where are drives C: and D:, you may ask?  They are connected to the connector
on the rear of the floppy disk controller, that comes with IBM-PC or XT
machines.

>2) If this IS possible, by what method can an application find out
>   what current drive device NAMES are available?

One way I did it was to use (if I remember correctly, as I am not at work to
look it up) int 10 to determine how many floppy drives have been selected.
That gave me the starting point for any hard disks.  Then do an operation
on the hard drive to see if you get an error or not.

There must be a better way to find out the hard disk drives letters.  I just
haven't looked very hard.  But, the int 10 thing will give you the starting
drive letter information.
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