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From: santeew@cs.uoregon.edu (John Wes Santee)
Newsgroups: cuny.lg.cis,comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: Help in adding a new drive?
Message-ID: <1991Jan2.052119.14061@cs.uoregon.edu>
Date: 2 Jan 91 05:21:19 GMT
References: <90365.230354G22QC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Sender: news@cs.uoregon.edu (Netnews Owner)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Oregon
Lines: 59

In article <90365.230354G22QC@CUNYVM.BITNET> G22QC@CUNYVM writes:
>My friend wanted to use 3.5 disks, so he bought a 3.5" floppy drive
>His computer is XT.  After everything was set up, he couldn't get
>his new drive working.  Here is what he has and what he has done:
>His computer is XT and has two floppy disk drives(A: and B:).
>He has removed one of the two disk drives(All low density drives)
>and put on that 3.5" disk drive.  In his Config.sys file, it has
>this line:  Device=Driver.sys /D:1 /T:80 /S:18 /C /F:7
>By the way, that 3.5" disk drive can be either LD or HD.
>He has also tried something like this:
>Drivparm=/D:1 /T:80 /S:18 /F:7
>Thanks in advance.
>-------
>
>   Eddie Wu
>{* G22QC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU *}
>
>*********


Concerning your friend who has just purchased the 3.5" drive.

If your friend is running a true XT, then he/she is looking at quite a bit
more money to get the drive to work.  There are basically two things wrong
with your current configuration.
     1)  When XT's were FIRST made, 1.44m drives weren't around (I'm
assuming that is what you installed), thus the BIOS in XT's do not support
calls from 1.44m drives (the BIOS will think it is a 360k drive).
     2)  The transfer rate of 3.5" drives is 500k/sec.  If your friend has
a standard XT floppy controller, then the drive wont work at all because
XT controllers will not transfer at that speed.

If either one of these problems is in your way then you are out of luck
until you buy new parts to be able to support it.  A new floppy controller
runs about $65, and a new BIOS is about the same (don't quote me).

If you have the correct floppy controller, then there is a piece of 
software that I use on my system (XT based 1.44m drive) that lets you get
away with "outsmarting" the XT BIOS by intercepting the call and making the
computer "think" it can support 1.44m.  The program is called BASTECH and
I had to buy it direct from Toshiba, the company that made my drive.


Hope that helps...

Wes Santee			| "It all seems so stupid,
santeew@asterix.cs.uoregon.edu	|   it makes me want to give up.
				| But why should I give up,         -Martin 
				|   when it all seems so stupid."      Gore 

P.S.  BASTECH runs about $15 which beats buying a new BIOS.
      However, there are no compatiblity guarantees....


--
Wes Santee			| "It all seems so stupid,
santeew@asterix.cs.uoregon.edu	|   it makes me want to give up.
				| But why should I give up,         -Martin 
				|   when it all seems so stupid."      Gore