sweet@scubed.UUCP (Kevin Sweet) (07/18/88)
In article <800@scubed.UUCP> I write: > > Is there any reason why I can't buy a 1.44Mb micro-floppy >disk drive and supporting controller and have it work on my XT? >I know I can get a HD disk drive for ~$100 and a HD floppy controller >for ~$50 from various dealers around town but can they work on my >machine (a true blue XT with InBoard 386 using MS-DOS 3.3)? Well, I now have a working 1.44 Mbyte 3.5" floppy disk on my XT as drive 'B' (and/or 'D'). Here is what I found that works: disk drive: Toshiba ND-356T-A (FDD 4603G0K) 3.5" FDD FDD jumper settings: 1) density select by drive ('B') 2) DS2 Extender card jumper settings: position 'A' (pin 34 connected? the manual that came with the drive is for a diff- erent model!) Price: $125 from San Dieguito Computers, Encinitas, CA (I've seen them advertized between $105 and $135, this is a good dealer for SD area people) 500 kB/sec floppy controller: DTK (Datatech Enterprises Co, Ltd.) PII-151 Mini/Micro FDC jumper JP1 set for hard disk jumper JP2 set for card BIOS enabled jumper JP3 set for card memory location '3' jumper JP4 set for 360 kB drive 'A', 1.44 MB drive 'B' Price: $50 from OEI Computers, Mira Mesa, CA (comes with cable) From my experience, the controller is the key element. I tried a no-name Taiwanese controller that didn't work (my thanks to Marcello at San Dieguito Computers for letting me take it back!). I would recommend the DTK controller to anyone wanting to put any non-360kB FDD as a second floppy drive in an XT class machine. The on-board BIOS drives drive 'B' (that's real drive 'B' not drive 'D') for 360/1.2/720/1.44 so there is no need to install another driver. For MS-DOS 3.3) to format 1.44 MB: FORMAT B: /T:80 /N:18 to format 720 kB: FORMAT B: /T:80 /N:9 [or, you can also set it up for drive 'D'] config.sys: DEVICE=driver.sys /d:1 /t:80 /s:18 /h:2 /c /f:7 use the same formatting commands above. For PC-DOS 3.1) [or any DOS < 3.3 for 1.44 MB or any DOS < 3.2 for 720 kB such that DOS > 2.0] driver software is available from Toshiba Accessories Direct, 800-433-5999, written by: Bastech, Inc. 31320 Via Colinas #102 Westlake Village, CA 91362 (area code 805) this copy-protected software comes with a driver (DRIVER35.SYS), an initialization program (INIT35.EXE), a formatter (FORMAT35.EXE) and a disk copy program (COPY35.EXE). config.sys: DEVICE=driver35.sys /d:1 /m:6 autoexec.bat: init35 Price: $15 + s/h from Toshiba I have no trouble formatting 1.44M or 720k. There is sometimes trouble reading the disks using DOS 3.3 but I can get around this by simply using D: when B: has trouble and B: when D: has trouble. All in all, I'd say it's a winning proposition. Thanks to: att!ihlpl!figlik (Jim Figlik) paul.rutgers.edu!kgordon (Ken Gordon) ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM!jimmy (James Mealhouse) tekgen.BV.TEK.COM!stever (Steve R) june.cs.washington.edu!yjk (Yong Jae Kim) tahoe.unr.edu!adonis (Derrick Hamner) cfa.harvard.edu!ward (Steve Ward) for their comments and help. Needless to say, I hope this helps somebody out (or at least saves them some time and run-around), - Kevin -- Kevin Sweet ----------------------------------------- sweet@kelvin.arpa S-CUBED, 3398 Carmel Mountain, San Diego, CA 92121-1095, (619)587-8499 (home) 12205 Carmel Vista 242, San Diego, CA 92130-2237, (619)259-9338 -------------- [ames,att,harvard,rutgers,ucsd,uunet]scubed!kelvin!sweet