Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!jli
From: JLI@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: RE: 1.2 Meg floppy on XT HELP
Message-ID: <19651@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 12 Dec 89 02:11:17 GMT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 44


I believe that you need a different floppy controller which
can handle high-density drives (such as 1.2M and 1.44M), if
your floppy controller on the multi-function XT I/O board
does not support high-density drives (they usually don't,
except some new products).  The regular XT multi-function
board only supports 360K drives and 720K (3.5", and with
DOS 3.2 or above) drives.

There many newly designed (not very new actually, we have
seen this kind of controller since two years ago) floppy
controllers you can buy through mail-order or at local
computer stores.  However, you may run into a problem, that
is, since you already have a controller, you cannot put in
another controller with the same I/O address unless you can
disable the controller on your original multi-function board
(which may not be achievable for most older designs).

There are some floppy controllers that can co-exist with the
original controller.  They configured themselves as the 
secondary controller (such as the CompatiCard, etc.).  With
this kind of controller, you can keep your original floppy
controller and drives and add additional drives (either low-
density or high-density) to your system.

So, there are many ways to handle this situation, but in my
opinion, the following two approaches might suit you.

    (1). Trade in your multi-function board, and buy a floppy
         controller that can handle high-density drives. Since
         most this kind of controllers does not have Clock,
         Serial/Parallel ports, etc., you have to buy an XT
         multi-I/O board.

    (2). Buy a floppy controller that can be configured as 
         secondary controller (we use the CompatiCard a lot,
         but it is not the cheapiest one), and add a high-density
         drive to your system.

I am not familiar with the recent prices of these products, but
you can easily find them in Computer Shopper, Byte, PC Magazine,
and many other publications.

I hope my observations answers most your questions.  Good Luck!