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5 total messages Started by Stefan M. Vorkoetter Tue, 21 Oct 1986 02:23
Adding a 3rd Disk Drive to a PC
#8416
Author: Stefan M. Vorkoetter
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1986 02:23
8 lines
811 bytes

Does anyone know of any software difficulties with adding a third
floppy disk drive to a PC?  I want to add a 720K drive and run under
DOS 2.10.  How do I tell DOS the drive is there, and what format it
is?  Thanks in advance.

Stefan Vorkoetter (watmath!watmum!smvorkoetter)
Re: Adding a 3rd Disk Drive to a PC
#8446
Author: brown
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1986 01:16
36 lines
2198 bytes
In article <636@watmum.UUCP> smvorkoetter@watmum.UUCP (Stefan M. Vorkoetter) writes:
>
>
>Does anyone know of any software difficulties with adding a third
>floppy disk drive to a PC?  I want to add a 720K drive and run under
>DOS 2.10.  How do I tell DOS the drive is there, and what format it
>is?  Thanks in advance.

No problem.  The XT I am using has two 20MB hard drives, two 1/2 height
5.25" floppies and two 3.5" floppies.

If you have any hard disks, you will need to change all program references
to particular drives, ie, C:.  When you change the number of floppy drives
attached switch from two to three or four, the first hard drive will start
at D: or E:.  That is why I set the switch to four floppies, even though
I only had two attached at the time. [poster note:  New BIOS XTs cannot
have switch set to 4 and have the hard drive start at E:.  New BIOS actually
checks to see if drives are attached and adjusts accordingly (dumb)]

All you need to do is provide power to the drive (used externally) and
make the ribbon cable that goes from the 37 pin D floppy controller connector
to the 34 pin floppy connectors.  BTW, the 34 pin floppy cable connects to pins
4 through 37 of the D connector.

Now, here is the part you are not going to like.  PC-DOS 2.10 will not work
with the 720K drives, ie, when formatted, you will only get 360K.  You need
to purchase PC-DOS 3.20 or get one of the new BIOS XTs.  PC-DOS 3.20 has
the device driver needed to run the 720K drives.

Hope this helped a little bit.
-- 
		  ihnp4------\
		harvard-\     \
Mr. Video	   seismo!uwvax!nicmad!brown
		  topaz-/     /
		 decvax------/
Re: Adding a 3rd Disk Drive to a PC
#8509
Author: brown
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1986 18:52
36 lines
2245 bytes
In article <636@watmum.UUCP> smvorkoetter@watmum.UUCP (Stefan M. Vorkoetter) writes:
>
>
>Does anyone know of any software difficulties with adding a third
>floppy disk drive to a PC?  I want to add a 720K drive and run under
>DOS 2.10.  How do I tell DOS the drive is there, and what format it
>is?  Thanks in advance.

No problem.  The XT I am using has two 20MB hard drives, two 1/2 height
5.25" floppies and two 3.5" floppies.

If you have any hard disks, you will need to change all program references
to particular drives, ie, C:.  When you change the number of floppy drives
attached switch from two to three or four, the first hard drive will start
at D: or E:.  That is why I set the switch to four floppies, even though
I only had two attached at the time. [poster note:  New BIOS XTs cannot
have switch set to 4 and have the hard drive start at E:.  New BIOS actually
checks to see if drives are attached and adjusts accordingly (dumb)]

All you need to do is provide power to the drive (used externally) and
make the ribbon cable that goes from the 37 pin D floppy controller connector
to the 34 pin floppy connectors.  BTW, the 34 pin floppy cable connects to pins
4 through 37 of the D connector.

Now, here is the part you are not going to like.  PC-DOS 2.10 will not work
with the 720K drives, ie, when formatted, you will only get 360K.  You need
to purchase PC-DOS 3.20 or get one of the new BIOS XTs.  PC-DOS 3.20 has
the device driver needed to run the 720K drives.

Hope this helped a little bit.
-- 
		  ihnp4------\
		harvard-\     \
Mr. Video	   seismo!uwvax!nicmad!brown
		  topaz-/     /
		 decvax------/
Re: Adding a 3rd Disk Drive to a PC
#8510
Author: brown
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1986 18:53
36 lines
2245 bytes
In article <636@watmum.UUCP> smvorkoetter@watmum.UUCP (Stefan M. Vorkoetter) writes:
>
>
>Does anyone know of any software difficulties with adding a third
>floppy disk drive to a PC?  I want to add a 720K drive and run under
>DOS 2.10.  How do I tell DOS the drive is there, and what format it
>is?  Thanks in advance.

No problem.  The XT I am using has two 20MB hard drives, two 1/2 height
5.25" floppies and two 3.5" floppies.

If you have any hard disks, you will need to change all program references
to particular drives, ie, C:.  When you change the number of floppy drives
attached switch from two to three or four, the first hard drive will start
at D: or E:.  That is why I set the switch to four floppies, even though
I only had two attached at the time. [poster note:  New BIOS XTs cannot
have switch set to 4 and have the hard drive start at E:.  New BIOS actually
checks to see if drives are attached and adjusts accordingly (dumb)]

All you need to do is provide power to the drive (used externally) and
make the ribbon cable that goes from the 37 pin D floppy controller connector
to the 34 pin floppy connectors.  BTW, the 34 pin floppy cable connects to pins
4 through 37 of the D connector.

Now, here is the part you are not going to like.  PC-DOS 2.10 will not work
with the 720K drives, ie, when formatted, you will only get 360K.  You need
to purchase PC-DOS 3.20 or get one of the new BIOS XTs.  PC-DOS 3.20 has
the device driver needed to run the 720K drives.

Hope this helped a little bit.
-- 
		  ihnp4------\
		harvard-\     \
Mr. Video	   seismo!uwvax!nicmad!brown
		  topaz-/     /
		 decvax------/
Re: Adding a 3rd Disk Drive to a PC
#8476
Author: David Ornstein
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1986 19:10
14 lines
1128 bytes
In article <636@watmum.UUCP>, smvorkoetter@watmum.UUCP (Stefan M. Vorkoetter) writes:
> 
> 
> Does anyone know of any software difficulties with adding a third
> floppy disk drive to a PC?  I want to add a 720K drive and run under
> DOS 2.10.  How do I tell DOS the drive is there, and what format it
> is?  Thanks in advance.
> 
> Stefan Vorkoetter (watmath!watmum!smvorkoetter)

DOS 3.2 provides a device driver and support for 3.5" 720KB drives.  There
isn't, to the best of my knowledge, any support for it otherwise.

david (seismo!mirror!at2020!david)
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