[comp.sys.ibm.pc] How do I get my original IBM PC-AT to run a 1.4 Meg disk drive?

jeffj@pedsga.UUCP (Jeff Jonas) (12/23/89)

I've read over 300 articles in this newsgroup, so if these
questions were already answered, please be tolerant because the
article had expired.

1) I installed a 3.5" floppy disk drive on my PC-AT.
	How do I make it run 1.44 Meg?
	(I am currently running it as 1.2 Meg)
	Specifics:
		IBM PC-AT motherboard with IBM ROM
		Western Digital WD-1002 disk controller
		DOS 3.2.

	I understand that there's a table of disk types (but is it copied to
	RAM or remain in ROM?).
	The non volatle memory contains the disk types,
	as set by the install program.
	Can I 'poke' the numbers for the 1.44 Meg drive in the table?

	Did I overlook some part of the Norton Utilities that handles this?

2) I want to salvage some old hard disks.  Their geometries are not
in the BIOS.  Is there some way to poke the correct information?
Perhaps some Public Domain driver that takes the dimentions as
arguments.

Thank you for your expertise.
Jeffrey Jonas
jonas@cooper.cooper.edu

admdrm@tness7.UUCP (Doug McCoy ) (12/28/89)

In article <1055@pedsga.UUCP> jeffj@pedsga.UUCP (Jeff Jonas) writes:
>I've read over 300 articles in this newsgroup, so if these
>questions were already answered, please be tolerant because the
>article had expired.
>
>1) I installed a 3.5" floppy disk drive on my PC-AT.
>       How do I make it run 1.44 Meg?
>       (I am currently running it as 1.2 Meg)
>       Specifics:
>               IBM PC-AT motherboard with IBM ROM
>               Western Digital WD-1002 disk controller
>               DOS 3.2.

>Some stuff deleted...
>
>Thank you for your expertise.
>Jeffrey Jonas
>jonas@cooper.cooper.edu

What you need is a new BIOS.  I just installed a 256K Award BIOS on my IBM
     AT.  The new BIOS allows you to set up any kind of floppy drive you
     like.  If you're interested, I bought it from Pinnacle Sales in Santa
     Clara, CA.  They're at (408) 249-7400.

     Doug McCoy