wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu (01/07/89)
Thanks to everyone who responded to my earlier message asking about 1.44Mb/3.5" diskette drives in XT clones. I am now the proud owner of such a device. I am using a TEAC drive (FD-235HF) with a DTK controller. The controller has its own BIOS on the board, making it unnecessary to use special driver software or upgrade my system's BIOS. I also recently got my copy of MS-DOS 3.30A (the generic version, from Microsoft); this is the version that -- among other things -- fixes the DRIVPARM problem. I configured my system to accept the new drive as drive B by using a DRIVPARM line in my CONFIG.SYS. (Note: If you're about to comment that "DRIVPARM doesn't work, you must use DRIVER.SYS", let me repeat that I am using the newer version, MS-DOS 3.30A, in which the old "DRIVPARM doesn't work at all" bug has been fixed.) The drive works just fine for me; I have so far not run into any prob- lems at all. My system, in any case, seems to have very good I/O (it passes FASTBACK PLUS's "high DMA" test with the clock at the 8-MHz "turbo" speed) -- so I suspected from the start that I would not fall victim to the various reports of flaky behavior of high-density floppy drives in XT clones. However, I now seem to be running into another problem -- this time with the DOS FORMAT program. If I put a 1.44Mb disk into the drive and say "FORMAT B:", it only formats half the disk (tracks 0-39). I tried the following (probably more verbose than necessary) DRIVPARM line -- drivparm=/d:1 /h:2 /s:18 /t:80 /f:7 -- and rearranged the order of the parameters in several different ways, but the same thing would always happen. If, however, I give the command "FORMAT B: /T:80", everything works fine and I get all 1.44Mb of the diskette formatted. By the way, I initially tried the following bare-bones DRIVPARM line -- drivparm=/d:1 /f:7 -- and FORMAT only gave me about 1.2Mb on a diskette! (It formatted all 80 tracks, so I assume it used only 15 sectors per track as a default.) Has anyone else run into this kind of problem with 1.44Mb drives and MS-DOS 3.30A? Is there a solution? Am I doing something subtly wrong? -- Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 (213) 825-5683 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024-1596 // USA wales@CS.UCLA.EDU ...!(uunet,ucbvax,rutgers)!cs.ucla.edu!wales "A monk, a clone, and a Ferengi decided to go bowling together . . ."
hundt@paul.rutgers.edu (Thomas M. Hundt) (01/08/89)
> I am now the proud owner of such a device. I am using a TEAC drive > (FD-235HF) with a DTK controller. The controller has its own BIOS on > the board, making it unnecessary to use special driver software or > upgrade my system's BIOS. > with the DOS FORMAT program. If I put a 1.44Mb disk into the drive and > say "FORMAT B:", it only formats half the disk (tracks 0-39). I tried > drivparm=/d:1 /h:2 /s:18 /t:80 /f:7 > "FORMAT B: /T:80", everything works fine and I get all 1.44Mb of the > diskette formatted. > > Has anyone else run into this kind of problem with 1.44Mb drives and > MS-DOS 3.30A? Is there a solution? Am I doing something subtly wrong? This is why I paid the $20 to get my BIOS upgraded. In my config.sys I have: <nothing at all concerning driver.sys or drivparm> and it works great. The default for formatting is 1.44, and to do 720k I have to type "FORMAT /n:9 /t:80" and away it goes. The only hitch is in trying to save $$$ by using DSDD disks as HD ones; I had to install an "override" switch in series with the media detector hole in the Teac. (I'm told this isn't necessary with some other 3.5" drives, ie. Toshiba.) Also this was necessary to read a disk created on PS/2: they don't seem to care if a diskette has a hole or not. Good luck -- RRRRRR Thomas M. Hundt RR RR Gradual Student --- Electrical & Computer Engineering RR RR Rutgers University RRRRR New Brunswick NJ RR RR hundt@occlusal.rutgers.edu RRR RRR Famous last words: "The virus ate it."
boyne@hplvli.HP.COM (Art Boyne) (01/10/89)
wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu writes: > I also recently got my copy of MS-DOS 3.30A (the generic version, from > Microsoft); this is the version that -- among other things -- fixes the > DRIVPARM problem. One question: where did you get 3.30A from? I'd like to get the fixed version, too. Art Boyne, boyne@hplvla.HP.COM
ray@micomvax.UUCP (Ray Dunn) (01/11/89)
In article <19363@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> wales@CS.UCLA.EDU (Rich Wales) writes: >However, I now seem to be running into another problem -- this time >with the DOS FORMAT program. If I put a 1.44Mb disk into the drive and >say "FORMAT B:", it only formats half the disk (tracks 0-39). I tried >the following (probably more verbose than necessary) DRIVPARM line -- > > drivparm=/d:1 /h:2 /s:18 /t:80 /f:7 > >-- and rearranged the order of the parameters in several different ways, >but the same thing would always happen. If, however, I give the command >"FORMAT B: /T:80", everything works fine and I get all 1.44Mb of the >diskette formatted. > The BIOS on your new floppy controller must not be returning the correct value for INT13 function 8 - Get Drive Parameters. This info is called for and *stored* by DOS early in its booting sequence and used by subsequent calls of FORMAT. The "problem" is essential in FORMAT, not in the BIOS, but is one of these areas that the BIOS must take the brunt and and attempt to implement an existing silly mechanism. If a 1.44 Mbtye drive is in use, the BIOS *must* return parameters for 1.44 Mbytes, even though a 720K diskette is being booted, or booting is taking place from hard disk, (and the BIOS cannot tell whether a 1.44 drive is present or not). If it does not, you get this effect and *must* supply the track arg to the FORMAT command. BTW if it does default to 1.44Mbytes, all this means of course, is that you must supply the required args to format a 720K floppy - you can't have it both ways, the way FORMAT is brain damaged. The good news is that this *only* affects the FORMAT command. -- Ray Dunn. | UUCP: ..!philabs!micomvax!ray Philips Electronics Ltd. | TEL : (514) 744-8200 Ext: 2347 600 Dr Frederik Philips Blvd | FAX : (514) 744-6455 St Laurent. Quebec. H4M 2S9 | TLX : 05-824090