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From: draper@buster.cps.msu.edu (Patrick J Draper)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Using IDE and MFM Drives together
Message-ID: <1991Jun2.045900.15627@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
Date: 2 Jun 91 04:59:00 GMT
References: <1991May30.181823.55145@uvmark.uucp> <3200@ria.ccs.uwo.ca>
Sender: news@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu
Reply-To: draper@buster.cps.msu.edu (Patrick J Draper)
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Michigan State University
Lines: 27
Originator: draper@buster.cps.msu.edu

>>  Does anyone know if it is possible to combien both an MFM and IDE disk
>>drive on the same system?  The PC I purchased is using the AWARD bios with
>>the IDE disk controller on the motherboard.
>
>I don't see how.  You can set up your bios info about both drives all right,
>but either the MFM and IDE/drive controllers will conflict with each other,
>or the MFM controller will try to access the second MFM drive, which isin't
>there.  You may get around this if you can set either the the IDE or the
>MFM controller to respond as a secondary controller.  I am in the same
>situation, and if I can dig up the specs for my mfm controller (which is
>integrated into my Western Digital mother board), I'll try it.

Yes, you can. Make the IDE secondary to the MFM drive, and install a
jumper on the IDE controller to disable the floppy controller (if it has
one) and switch the bios mapping location to an alternate address. Set
the BIOS type on the primary MFM drive to what it's supposed to be, and
the second hard disk bios setting to NOT INSTALLED.

It also requires that there is ONE partition on the MFM drive, as the
IDE will take the letters D:, E:, etc.


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Patrick Draper       disclaimer --- "I can't control my fingers, 
cps.msu.edu                          I can't control my toes." 
draper@cps.msu.edu           --Ramones 
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