Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mstar!westfort!dougl
From: dougl@westfort.UUCP (Dougras Roos)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: 1.44 meg 3 1/2" drive whoas
Message-ID: <3479@westfort.UUCP>
Date: 25 May 89 23:10:39 GMT
References: <634@pmafire.UUCP> <935@mks.UUCP> <8141@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Reply-To: westfort!dougl@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: Outside the Asylum at the Western Fortress
Lines: 23

I recently pieced together a 10 MHz XT clone system that I purchased from JDR 
Microdevices.  I purchased a Seagate 30M hard drive and a 1.44 meg 3 1/2" 
drive (Teac?) to put in the system.
 
I put it all together, and things were working beautifully until I tried to 
work with the floppy drive.  To make the thing work on an XT, JDR includes a 
device driver ("jdrdisk.sys").  I set that up just right, and the drive *does* 
work, but it does so at an appalingly slow pace, considerably slower than a 
360K drive!  I called JDR to ask about this, and they said that there was 
nothing that they could do about it -- I was told that the driver slows the 
drive down so it can "cope with the high amount of data on the disk." 
 
Now, I've dealt with JDR before, and they've been very good at customer 
service and technical help, but this sounds a bit fishy.  Why would it slow 
the disk down so much that it runs *slower* than a normal (5 1/4") floppy 
drive?  My computer is as fast or nearly as fast as some low-end AT's, and the 
AT I use at work with the small disk drive just sings along.
 
Does anyone know about this?  Perhaps someone could either second JDR's 
verdict or point me to a source for a better driver?
 
Thanks,

Douglas Luce
Modesty International
dougl@westfort.UUCP || tut!westfort!dougl ||
westfort!dougl@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu