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From: brown@nicmad.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: IBM Portable 3 1/2" Drive Question
Message-ID: <693@nicmad.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-May-86 02:55:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: nicmad.693
Posted: Tue May 20 02:55:35 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 23-May-86 22:11:20 EDT
References: <641@bu-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: brown@nicmad.UUCP (Mr. Video)
Organization: Nicolet Instrument Corp. Madison WI
Lines: 59

In article <641@bu-cs.UUCP> awc@bu-cs.UUCP (Alex Cannon) writes:
>
>Howdy,

Hi there!!!

>I'm a Software Support programmer on our IBM 3090 (we run a great home-grown 
>system called VPS), and I recently took over PC support. A user came in and
>told me she wanted to get an IBM portable to do word processing on in 
>Europe, and the salesman told her that no more portables were being 
>manufactured with 4 1/4" drives, only with 3 1/2" floppies, and that she
>couldn't get a service contract on one of the older models, even if she
>found one. That sounds somewhat like bullshit to me; does anyone out there
>know what the story is?
>
>If she can get a word processing package on 3 1/2" disks, that'd probably
>be ok, but we'd still have the problem of transferring her (large) text
>files from our mainframe to a PC. The only reliable FTP we have is Kermit,
>and we only have 4 1/4" drives here. She doesn't want to shell out over
>a thousand bucks for a modem/com board either. Does anyone know about these
>new drives? Could we get one for my XT, and copy the files after I download
>them? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

First things first.  They are 5 1/4" drives, not 4 1/4".  With that out
of the way, I will then describe the current system that I am using:
	IBM-PC/XT
	640K on mother board
	Two 10 MB MicroScience hard drives		E/F
	DTC hard drive controller
	Two TEAC 5 1/4" half-height floppies		A/B
	Two TEAC 3 1/2" micro floppies			C/D & G/H
	PC-DOS 3.20

I guess the above configuration would fit the bill.

Yes, IBM 5 1/4" portables are no longer being distributed.  Our local
Computerland couldn't even get them to fill outstanding orders.  I don't
know about the service contract.  There are still Compaq 5 1/4" portables
out there, which is one of the reasons IBM quit portables (too much com-
petition).  Anyway, even if she did get one of the new 3 1/2" portable
units, sho won't find Lotus 1-2-3 available yet, in the 3 1/2" format.
The only way that she is going to get 1-2-3 ported to the portable is
to use an un-copy protected version.  From what I have read, the BIOS is
different enough that it wouldn't even work anyway.

So, yes you can make copies of 5 1/4" floppies to 3 1/2" floppies, (using
somthing like I have above) but it wouldn't do you any good.

Until Lotus releases the 3 1/2" version (they said they are), I suggest
you borrow a Compaq portable with 5 1/4" floppies.

The news isn't very good.  But it will get better as time goes on.
-- 

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