mpcook@chinet.chi.il.us (Michael P. Cook) (03/29/89)
I want to thank everyone who sent me information on installing a high
density 3 1/2" floppy drive in an "xt" as well as use of DRIVER.SYS
and DRIVPARM.
I am pleased to report complete success in installing a Toshiba 1.44MEG
3 1/2" floppy drive in an IBM PC (original true blue). I am using the
Western Digital FOX-3 controller, IBM PC DOS 3.3 and I AM NOT USING
DRIVERS OF ANY KIND! I am able to boot with my 5 1/4" cabled as A: and the
Toshiba cabled as B: with no CONFIG.SYS, NO DRIVERS, NO THIRD PARTY
SOFTWARE INSTALLED. I get 1.44MEG in B: -- no problems of any kind.
Credit goes to Western Digital as far as I am concerned since the BIOS
on their controller takes care of everything so I do not have to fool
with patching DOS to get DRIVPARM to work, nor use precious RAM (in the
640K PC) with other drivers installed.
I guess some credit ought to go to IBM as well for being "compatible."
No matter what people say, over the past 6 years, my IBM PC has remained
both hardware and software compatible with just about anything I've been
able to throw at it. I WOULD NOT trade it for any other 8088/8086 machine.
By the way, I have a hard drive as C: and D:, a RAM disk as E: using VDISK.SYS,
and a disk cache using IBMCACHE.SYS, the latter two from CONFIG.SYS installed
drivers and still no incompatibilities. Norton Utilities disk-type programs
all see my 1.44MEG drive as what it is with no problems. Format works fine
as well.
I highly recommend this configuration if you have an IBM PC or IBM PC/XT
and need to add/replace a floppy drive. Also, the FOX-4 card supports
an additional 2 external drives as well as the two internal drives of
the FOX-3.
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Mike Cook Oak Park, IL
usenet: !chi.il.us!chinet!mpcook
data: 312-383-6335 - Discovery Place BBS, 3/12/2400, 8N1
=>Home of Children's Software Library
________________________________________________________________________
THESE ARE MY OWN OPINIONS AND ARE NOT SHARED BY MY EMPLOYER OR ANYONE
ASSOCIATED WITH MY EMPLOYER (I'M SURE, BECAUSE THEY COULDN'T CARE LESS
ABOUT THESE ARCANE ISSUES).
________________________________________________________________________
And no -- I do not have any connection whatsoever with either IBM Corp
or Western Digital other than being a satisfied customer of modest means.