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From: hollen@eta.megatek.uucp (Dion Hollenbeck)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Does DRIVPARM actually work?
Message-ID: <837@megatek.UUCP>
Date: 4 Dec 89 15:18:08 GMT
References: <18968@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Sender: news@megatek.UUCP
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From article <18968@watdragon.waterloo.edu>, by thfisher@lion.waterloo.edu (Terry Fisher):
> I have been trying to get the DRIVPARM command to make a clone recognise
> the 3.5" drive as 720K.  I keep getting an error message about an
> unrecognized command in config.sys.  Does this command work, or am I
> doing something wrong.
> Terry Fisher			thfisher@lion.waterloo.edu
> Waterloo, Ontario, Canada	{...}!watmath!lion!thfisher
> (519) 885-2785

 Yes, but it depends on what version of DOS and how you use the
command.  Since you do not specify the exact command you are
trying to use and also do not specify what version of DOS, 
nor do you specify XT or AT or 386, it is
hard to say what your problem is.  Therefore, I will give some
general information which may lead you to the right answer.

In DOS 3.2 on an XT DRIVPARM works as advertised.  The command I use is

DRIVPARM= /d:2 /f:2

which says that drive C, my third floppy is a 720k.  Nevermind that it
is a 5 1/4" 80 track, it works fine.  You could have done this to
drive A or B without opening the case.  If you wanted to add a third
or fourth floppy, be sure to open the case and reset the DIP switches
the indicate the total number of floppies you have in the system.

This same command on DOS 3.3 WILL FAIL.  Previous postings to this
newsgroup (unfortunately I cannot find the copy I saved) told how
to add several CTL-A characters and some other characters to the
end of the line and this will magically work!!!  Maybe some kind
soul would post this again for you.  The other possiblity is
trying DRIVER.SYS to handle the non-standard configuration, but
the drive will be numbered ABOVE you hard disk and DRIVER.SYS
takes valuable memory.

Regardless of DOS version if you have an AT and are trying to add
a third or fourth floppy, even if your controller card will support
it, 9 out of 10 BIOS's will not let you indicate more than 2 floppies
in the CMOS setup program.  I curse shit-for-brains idiots who first
came up with this, since it has become the standard rather than
the exception.  Since when does upgrading to a more powerful machine
mean that you do not need as many type of I/O devices?

Hope this helps and if your problem is DOS 3.3 (that's one of the
reasons I have stayed with 3.2), hope someone will post the fix
I mentioned.


	Dion Hollenbeck             (619) 455-5590 x2814
	Megatek Corporation, 9645 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA  92121

        uunet!megatek!hollen       or  hollen@megatek.uucp