16 Jan
2005
16 Jan
'05
11:01 a.m.
At 02:07 PM 1/16/05 -0500, you wrote:
On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 07:47:15 -0800 (PST)
Vintage Computer Festival <vcf(a)siconic.com> wrote:
I used to run four (5.25") drives with no problems. My NEC Multispeed
laptop also had a provision to connect it to a PC's external drive
connector and you could then access the Multispeed's two 720k 3.5" disks as
the 3rd and 4th drive on the PC. I made a cable to connect the Multispeed
to the PC but I loaned it and all my NEC Multispeed manuals to one of the
members of this list and he never returned them. In both cases, I had to
add a line or two in the Config.sys file to make DOS recognize the 3rd and
4th drives.
Joe
I know we've discussed this before but the right Google search terms
are eluding me.
Is it possible to get 4 floppy drives onto a PC? If so, how? If I
stick two controllers in the PC and configure one with a different
base address and interrupt (assuming I can find a card that allows me
to do this) will DOS automatically recognize the second controller and
extend the drive letters C: and D: to the drives on that card?
--
The original IBM-PC's floppy controller made provisions for four floppy
drives. There are control lines to select up to four drives on the
single interface. They put a 37-pin D-shape connector on the bracket of
early IBM floppy controller cards so you could plug in an expansion case
with two external floppy drives.
I only did this once, as an experiment, to see if I could run my old
WWIV BBS on floppy-drives only, to reduce the noise of the machine. (It
worked, but was much slower.)
I'm pretty sure the 'fix' isn't to plug in an old IBM controller,
though, unless you're already talking about a vintage restoration
project. But the third and fourth select lines should be available on
some controllers.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
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