teexmmo@ioe.lon.ac.uk (Matthew Moore) (08/07/90)
medici@dorm.rutgers.edu (Mark Medici) writes: >jpd@pc.usl.edu (Dugal James P.) writes: > >>Our department has a PS2/80-041 with an IBM external 5 1/4" 360K >>drive. Has anyone tried replacing the diskette drive with a 1.2M drive? >>Given that we drill out the two IBM-special screws and can open the >>cabinet, I wonder if I'll have to mess with driver.sys or patch the DPB >>or whatever. > >There does not seem to be any built-in support for 1.2MB drives on >PS/2's, e.g., there is no way to tell a PS/2 that it has a 1.2MB/5.25" >drive via the IBM supplied reference disk. I assume that the IBM >1.2MB drive kit includes a driver to supply the support, but I've >never encountered one of these costly behemoths. > and Paul Capista writes: # I have been trying for the past 3 months to order an 5.25 add-on drive # for my PS/2 model 55 SX. Vendors have either told me they don't # have any add-ons for the 55 SX or one vender sent me an add-on, but # it wasn't for a 55 SX (it was for a model 50 Z). I eventually # contacted our hardware support group, and they told me that the 55 SX # can't support an add-on because of a bug in the system. They # were not clear on the actual problem. Has anyone had any experience # with trying to get an add-on for a model 55 SX? Also, does anyone know # if there really is a bug in the model 55 SX which would cause this # problem. Thanks, in advance! # My previous posting was a little hasty, and couldnt be cancelled. We have fitted external 5.25" drives to PS/2 70's and PS/2 55SX's. For the various makes of drive available, the software mechanism seems to be the same, namely that a supplied driver must be installed via config.sys, and in addition, the MCA must be informed via an ADF file. (Thats Adaptor Description File, which is human readable, and is read during the Reference Disk setup update process.). Hardware: attachment can be via expansion card slot, or can be plugged in, via a widget, to the bus expansion card used by the disk drives. Power can be drawn direct from the bus, or from the mains, depending on model. Models: IBM 4869 : 360K _or_ 1.2M/360K. The 360K ones have an asterisk o the front panel. Power supply external, internal connection via expansion card. Sysgen: 1.2M/360K (I think). Comes with several drivers. Power drawn from bus. Internal connection is via a widget which plugs into the (disk) bus expansion card. There is a different widget for each model of PS/2, and it is not possible to fit the widget plus two internal 3.5" floppy drives in the model 70, due to spatial problems. Other manufacturers: our dealer is investigating several models at the moment. There seem to be some supply problems with the IBM models.