wtm@neoucom.UUCP (01/03/87)
Hi, I was pretty much overwhelmed with responses on my question on putting a hard-card style drive in the 6300. Apparently some of the vendors assume that one isn't smart enough to be able to check the firmware revision level in her/his computer. Its probably easier for them to give a generic nix to the 6300 so as they won't have to worry about their salespeole asing informed questions. The consensus is that firmware level 1.43 or higher will support add-on disk drives from 3rd parties. In most instances the dipswitch pack (see the manual) on the bottom board needs to be set to both "yes there is a hard disk" and "the drive is external". Looks like the latter setting cuases the BIOS ROM on the controller card to be used, in place of the code built into the 6300. Note: the lingo "external" doesn't in this case mean that the dive is outside of the 6300 cabinet. I've noticed that one of our 6300s that has a 3rd party 1/2 ht drive that was installed by a dealer always comes up with "Hard Disk: not present" on the self test menu but always boots anyway, I suspect this is an artifact caused by setting the dipswitch to "external", and not a real error. If you don't have firmware 1.43, your friendly AT&T rep ought to be able to help you out. Also, ask about a program called LLFORMAT that is used for doing the low level format of the drive before you patition it and do the usual DOS format. Apparently, LLFORMAT has also been updated to accomodate 3rd party disks. You can also probalby use DEBUG to access low level formatting routines on your controller card if you have a Western Digital (see the manual, I'm relatively uninformed on this point). I don't know about Adaptec controllers, but several people reported using them in the 6300. It looks like physical size usually is not a problem with hard card style drives in the 6300 people reported using virtually every type I've seen advertised. Several people mentioned that the 30 meg Seagate 238 1/2 ht. drive is a good deal, if you can survive without two floppies in your machine. Several places offer that drive for as low as $469 with controller in Computer Shopper. One person reported using four Plus hardcards in a Compaq without any ill effects; wow! Another person reported using both a conventional 1/2 ht. drive and a hard card in the AT&T 6300. Thank you to everybody who responded. I tried to send out acknowledgements to all who sent letters, but I had trouble returning mail to several sites. --Bill Bill Mayhew Division of Basic Medical Sciences Northeastern Ohio Universities' College of Medicine Rootstown, OH 44272 USA phone: 216-325-2511 (wtm@neoucom.UUCP ...!cbatt!neoucom!wtm)