Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsc!psfales From: psfales@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (Peter Fales) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: 1.2M or 1.44M drive for ATT6300? Message-ID: <1124@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> Date: 4 Jun 89 18:58:34 GMT References: <1565@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu> Distribution: na Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 34 In article <1565@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu>, yuichi@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu (Yuichi Shoda) writes: > > I have an older AT&T 6300 and am wondering if I can use a high capacity > floppy drive for it. Given the relatively low cost of blank diskettes, I > prefer to get a 5.25" 1.2M drive. But if that can't be done, can I use a > 3.5" 1.44M drive? > > The floppy controller is on the motherboard itself, so I can't replace it > with a newer controller easily. Can I disable it somehow and put in a new > controller? I don't think it's possible but could it possibly be that all > I need is a device driver? Or, perhaps I can put in a contoller and consider > a new drive a third drive, in addition to the existing two that are contolled > by the controller-on-the-motherboard. The easy answer is that the built-in floppy controller is not capable of supporting the 1.2MB drives. One possibility that I have used successfully is to use a 720K drive, either 5.25 or 3.5 inch. This can be done with nothing more than a software change using either DRIVPARM or DRIVER.SYS. Another possibility is to use an external controller. I have less experience with this, but I know it is possible to disable the on-board controller by lifting pin 17 of the IO decoder PAL, a 24 pin socketed device next to the BIOS ROMs on the motherboard. After doing that, it should be possible to use any of a number of third party disk controllers, including the kind that support both 360K and 1.2MB or 1.44MB drives. Disclaimer: THIS MODIFICATION IS NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED BY AT&T AND WILL UNDOUBTABLY VOID YOUR WARRANTY. YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY. -- Peter Fales AT&T, Room 5B-420 2000 N. Naperville Rd. UUCP: ...att!ihlpb!psfales Naperville, IL 60566 Domain: psfales@ihlpb.att.com work: (312) 979-8031