4 floppy disk drives on a PC?

From: Vintage Computer Festival <vcf_at_siconic.com>
Date: Sun Jan 16 13:23:55 2005

On Sun, 16 Jan 2005, Scott Stevens wrote:

> 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.

I'd like to make a box with four floppy types: 5.25" 360 and 1.2, and
3.5" 720 and 1.44. I seem to recall someone here did this.

I imagine I can use the integrated floppy controller and then add another
board to provide the additional controller.

I'll check the DOS manual to see if it says anything as Nico indicates.

-- 
Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Sun Jan 16 2005 - 13:23:55 GMT

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