jdalin@devildog.att.com (Jimmy Dalin) (02/06/91)
I'd like to know about a 4-floppy controller cards. I have an AT (286) machine that I'd like to add a third floppy to. I understand that the 4-floppy controllers have to have their own ROM. It raises some questions: 1. What drive letters are assigned to your third and fourth floppy? I assume the first two are "A:" and "B:", but I've always assumed that your hard drive always has to be C:. Further, if you have more than one hard drive partition where do the 3rd and 4th floppy drives go, letter-wise? After the last hard drive partition? 2. Does DOS have any problems recognizing the 3rd and 4th floppy drive? What about other software (Windows, PCTOOLS, Norton, etc.)? Assuming that the 3rd and 4th floppies are, let's say, your E: drive and F: drive, will a backup program (PCBACKUP, Fastback, etc.) allow you to back up a hard disk to your E: drive and/or F: drive? If I have a new piece of software to be installed from a floppy, can I install it from (for example) my E: or F: drive? 3. Do you need a device driver or other TSR? Does the controller card come with a floppy with the driver, format program, etc? 4. My current disk controller card is a standard MFM 2 hard / 2 floppy controller card. a) Do I control all 4 floppies from the new card, or do my first two floppies stay on the hard/floppy card and the second two floppies plug into the new card? b) If I plug all four floppies into the new card, is there anything that I need to do to disable the hard/floppy controller's "floppy section"? Thanks. Jim Dalin
schwalbe@pinocchio.Encore.COM (Jim Schwalbe) (02/12/91)
In article <1848@devildog.att.com> jdalin@devildog.att.com (Jimmy Dalin) writes: >I'd like to know about a 4-floppy controller cards. I have an AT (286) >machine that I'd like to add a third floppy to. I understand that the >4-floppy controllers have to have their own ROM. It raises some questions: >1. What drive letters are assigned to your third and fourth floppy? I assume >the first two are "A:" and "B:", but I've always assumed that your hard drive >always has to be C:. Further, if you have more than one hard drive partition >where do the 3rd and 4th floppy drives go, letter-wise? After the last hard >drive partition? > Not necessarily true. I have seen some that have their own ROM. I believe (although not sure) that these will make floppy 3 and 4 be C: and D:. The one I have is a 2 Hard drive / 4 Floppy controller. It comes with and installable device driver that gets loaded in config.sys. It puts floppy 3 and 4 *after* all other drives so on my system, I have 4 logical hard drives so floppy 3 is drive G: >2. Does DOS have any problems recognizing the 3rd and 4th floppy drive? What >about other software (Windows, PCTOOLS, Norton, etc.)? Assuming that the 3rd >and 4th floppies are, let's say, your E: drive and F: drive, will a backup >program (PCBACKUP, Fastback, etc.) allow you to back up a hard disk to your E: >drive and/or F: drive? If I have a new piece of software to be installed >from a floppy, can I install it from (for example) my E: or F: drive? > The only problem I have had is with the DISKCOPY command. Someone told me you can't diskcopy with a 3rd or 4th floppy and sure enough it doesn't work on my system either. All other software works fine on the drive. >3. Do you need a device driver or other TSR? Does the controller card come >with a floppy with the driver, format program, etc? See above. > >4. My current disk controller card is a standard MFM 2 hard / 2 floppy >controller card. a) Do I control all 4 floppies from the new card, or do my >first two floppies stay on the hard/floppy card and the second two floppies >plug into the new card? b) If I plug all four floppies into the new card, is >there anything that I need to do to disable the hard/floppy controller's >"floppy section"? > The card I have allow you to disable the Hard drive controller, the primary (A/B) floppy, and the secondary (C/D) floppy controller so you can use them in conjuction with other disk controller cards. BTW, my card is a noname taiwaneese clone that I picked up at a computer flea market. .---------------------------------------------------------------------------. : Jim Schwalbe .----------------. "Half of what I say is : : Hardware Research Group .--+-------------. | meaningless; but I say it : : Encore Computer Corp. | | E N C O R E | | so that the other half may : : Mail: | `-------------+--' reach you." : : schwalbe@encore.com `----------------' - Kahil Gibran : `---------------------------------------------------------------------------'