Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!iuvax!bkliewer
From: bkliewer@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Bradley Dyck Kliewer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 3.5-inch internal drive B: write
Message-ID: <7991@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 18 Apr 88 20:28:08 GMT
References: <149@dogie.edu> <63200039@convex>
Reply-To: bkliewer@iuvax.UUCP (Bradley Dyck Kliewer)
Organization: Indiana University CSCI, Bloomington
Lines: 26

>So the following two lines in CONFIG.SYS will tell DOS that a 1.44M logical
>drive and a 720K logical drive are installed:
>
>DEVICE=C:\DRIVER.SYS /D:1 /T:80 /S:18 /H:2 /F:7   /* 1.44M drive type */
>DEVICE=C:\DRIVER.SYS /D:1 /T:80 /S:09 /H:2 /F:2   /* 720K  drive type */
>                                           ^^^^
>format b: /N:18 /T:80  /* 1.44m */
>format b: /N:09 /T:80  /*  720k */
>
>Its helpful if your BIOS is up-to-date, but is doesn't HAVE to be.  DOS 3.3
>was designed to let 3.5" drives be installed in _older_ PCs and overlays the
>INT13 code in those BIOS, too.

But, there must be something in the BIOS that DOS needs.  I have a 1.44M in
a _very_ old IBM AT, and try as I may, I cannot get it to work even with
DOS 3.3 and the parameters you give above.  I use a device driver from 
Bastech (and I'd rather not since it is copy protected).  Even with the
Bastech driver, I still have major problems formatting 720K diskettes (the
format program is also Bastech's).  I get ERROR CLEARING FAT on about 60%
of 720K floppies.  I can read and write other 720K's fine, and I have no
problems with the ones I can format.  So far, I haven't had any problems with
1.44M's, but then I haven't used many since they are rather expensive.

Bradley Dyck Kliewer                Hacking...
bkliewer@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu       It's not just an adventure
                                    It's my job!