Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!hal!ncoast!dchou
From: dchou@ncoast.ORG (David Chou)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: More than 2 floppy drives
Summary: It is possible to add a secondary floppy controller
Keywords: PC/AT floppy drives
Message-ID: <13637@ncoast.ORG>
Date: 11 May 89 01:55:21 GMT
References: <23341@ccicpg.UUCP>
Organization: Cleveland Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, OH
Lines: 31



I have added a second floppy controller to my AT clone, but I found the
process less than straigtforward.  In my case, I needed a 1.44 drive in
addition to my 1.2mb and 360kb drives.  Here is what I eneded up doing:

	I used a SYSGEN OMNI-BRIDGE controller and set it up with
	its controller PROM at address CE00.  This was necessary to
	avoid conflicts with a hard disk BIOS extension at address
	C800.  The card requires a device driver to be implemented
	at startup.  To connect this to a TEAC, I had to make a special
	ribbon connector.  The drive was mounted in a case with a 
	power supply from JDR.

Advantages:  The approach cost $80 for the card, $135 for the TEAC (now
available for less), $50 for the case and power supply, and another $10-15
for the cables and connectors.  It does work well and allows me to add 2-4
additional floppy drives.

Disadvantages:  Another on-off switch, more cables.  A more serious 
problem is that the TEAC and/or controller scribbles garbage all over
any disk installed in the drive on power off/on so I have to be sure not
to leave a disk in the drive.  The startup is lengthened due to some
bizzare requirement for the SYSGEN card to wait 5-10 seconds during the
initialization.

I have also used the switch card accessory offered by IBM for their
external 3.5 drive.  It does seem better integrated, but does not
support 1.44 or 1.2mb drives.

David Chou    ncoast!dchou@hal.cwru.edu