I've got DOS 5.0 and I'm reading my User Guide, in the Customizing you system, and it says I can add up to 4 floppy drives more than what my bios reports(bios reports a:B:drives) It does this by Using the device driver "driver.SYS" it says to edit my config.sys file and to use a drivparm command. it says for a 720k drive to be added you would edit you comfig.sys file like this device=c:\dos\driver.sys /d:2 /f:2
d:2 =drive is configured as drive 2
/f = specifies that the drive is a 720k
Question how do I hook up 4 floppy drives to a motherboard, for example a ide controller card supports 2 floppies but I got a HD controller card for a VESA slot that has primary and secondary FDD connectors so IT SHOULD WORK WITH THIS VESA CONTROLLER CARD?
and how can I make it work with 2 controller cards, each supporting 2 floppies{2*2=4}do I have to change Jumpers on these Controller cards or Will dos detect what drive is what.
And I'm Wondering can I have 4 floppies in windows 95 too? or is this a dos 5.0 thing? dose 6.22 support this feature? PLEASE HELP
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Response Number 1
Name: Srinath
Date: May 06, 2001 at 01:03:21 Pacific
Subject: Can I have 6 Floppy Disk Drives in DOS??
Reply:
Ok !!
You seem to be a great floppy drive dealer ! As far as I know it is not possible to exceed more than 2 floppy drives in a PC with DOS ! That's because you are not allocated more than 2 drive letters for floppy drives ie only a: & b: ! i'm not sure about other OS'es say like Linux !! maybe it can host 6 drives as /dev/fd0 ; /dev/fd1
/dev/fd2 /dev/fd3 and so on......
Any one who can clear this doubt of mine !!
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Response Number 2
Name: jboy
Date: May 06, 2001 at 03:25:51 Pacific
Subject: Can I have 6 Floppy Disk Drives in DOS??
Reply:
Certain fdd controllers allow for 4 floppy drives. They can have what ever drive letters are available - OS shouldn't matter. I've never seen 6
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Response Number 3
Name: N/A
Date: May 06, 2001 at 12:43:04 Pacific
Subject: Can I have 6 Floppy Disk Drives in DOS??
Reply:
"OK HERE IS THE ENTIRE ARTICAL" SEE IF YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT **I GIVE FULL CREDIT TO MICROSOFT COPARTATION** ADDING DISK DRIVES..MS-DOS has a built-in device driver that controls sll standard floppy disk drives reported by your system's ROM BIOS. If you add a floppy disk drive and it does not work, then the ROM BIOS is not reporting that drive. In that case, you must install a device driver called DRIVER.SYS. You can use this device driver to control up to four additional floppy disk drives. DRIVER.SYS cannot be used to control hard disk drives. For more information about installable device drivers, see Chapter 15,"Device Drivers"
DRIVER.SYS involves both PHYSICAL DRIVES and LOGICAL drives. Physical drives are hardware components that are numbered, beginning with 0, the second is always physical drive 1, and so on. If you have a hard disk drive, it is always physical drive 128 whether or not you have a second floppy disk drive. MS-DOS supports 128 physical floppy drives.
Logical drives are labels that MS-DOS uses to keep track of where it sendsdata. Logical-drive labels are letters A-Z. Every physical drive has a corresponding logical drive. However, every logical drive does not have a corresponding physical drive. Your first floppy disk drive(physical drive 0) is always represented as drive A; the second(physical drive 1)is always represented as drive B. You can have logical drives that do not correspond to physical drives if you use network drives,extended MS-DOS partitions, or RAM drives, or if you substitute a drive letter for a directory.
In general,you use only logical-drive letters, not physical-drive numbers.
MS-DOS supports only 26 drive letters at a time. The only time you need to know the physical-drive number of a device is when you define the drive by using DRIVER.SYS or when you redefine the drive by using a drivparm command in your CONFIG.SYS FILE. For Info. about the drivparm command, see chapter 14 "commmands"
INSTALLING THE DRIVER IN BRIEF
To install DRIVER.SYS, include a device command in your CONFIG.SYS file. For example, if the DRIVER.SYS file is in the C:/DOS directory, the following command installs DRIVER.SYS for a new 1.2-MB, 5.25-inch floppy disk drive device=c:\dos\driver.sys /d:2 /c /f:1
When you define a new disk drive, you indicate which physical drive it is. Ms-DOS assigns it the next available logical drive letter. You cannot use DRIVER.SYS to change a previously dfined logical drive. However, you can assign a second logical-drive letter to a drive to change its characteristics.
If you add a floppy disk drive that is not supported by you system's ROM BIOS, you need to install DRIVER.SYS to support that floppy disk drive. Inclued a DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS command inyou COMFIG.SYS FILE. To give the drive a physical drive number and specify what kind of drive it is, include one or more of the following swithches
/d:number Assings a physical drive number to a new drive. When you install a drive, its physical drive number is determinde by the drive's physical position and the settings of your system's hardware DIP switches, Drive numbers range from 0 through 127. Drive number 0 and 1 are reserved for the first two floppy disk drives. Each DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS command must have a /d switch.For Exampl /d3 specifies that the physical drive number is 3. /c Indicates that the drive can detect when a driv door is open. If you use this switch, it is assumed that the disk drive supports change-line error detection. Check the documentation for you disk drive to see whether the drive supports change-line error detection. /f Specifies the storage capacity of the disk drive you want to add. You can use any of the following values: 0=160k,320k or 360k;1=1.2MB;2=720k;7=1.44MB; and 9= 2.88MB. the default is 2 /h:number Specifies the number of heads(sides) that a drive has. You can specify values from 1 through 99(defalt is 2) /s:number Specifies the number of sectors per track on a dirsk drive. You can specify values from 1 through 99(the default is 9) /t:number Specifies the number of tracks per side on a disk drive. you can specify values from 1 through 999(the default is 80) Suppose you want to add a 720k drive to your system. The drive has 2 sides(that is 2 heads), 9 sectors per track, and 80 tracks per side. The drive is configured sd drive 2. You whould add the following device command to you config.sys file...... device=c:\dos\driver.sys /d:2 /f:2 This command specifies theat the DRIVER.SYS file is in the C:DOS directory. The /d switch specifies that the drive is configured as drive 2, using hardware switches. The /f switch specifies that the drive is a 720k drive. Because the /f switch includes a set of default values for heads, sectors, and tracks, you don't have to inclued witches that specify theses values. OK WOW LOTS OF TYPING, SO HOW WOULD DOS KNOW WHAT DRIVE IS WHAT NUMBER DOS IT STORE IT IN THE DRIVER FOR EXAMPLE IF I PUT A CONTROLLER CARD IN A MACHINE AND ADDED A FLOPPY HOW DOSE DOS KNOW I'M USEING THIS FLOPPY, I NEED AWNSERS PLEASE, HOPE THIS HELPED
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Response Number 4
Name: jboy
Date: May 06, 2001 at 20:44:37 Pacific
Subject: Can I have 6 Floppy Disk Drives in DOS??
Reply:
Well..... I had an old FDD/HDD controller that would take two (2) floppy cables. With 2 fdd's to a cable, I could have had 4 installed (only had 3 tho'). Cannot remember if I needed to use drivparm or not - it has been a while. Basically, drivparm and driver.sys function as workarounds when DOS won't recognize installed drives (block devices). As well, driver.sys allows you to assign 2 letters to one drive - similar to what's done when you do a copy a: to b: on a system with only one fdd. Normally the BIOS determines the drives before DOS is even loaded. Usually the a: drive is the one on the 'twisted' end of the cable, but there are jumpers or dip switches on the floppy drives that can be set for other configurations.
btw - next time save wear and tear on your typing fingers - copy and paste. *g*
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Response Number 5
Name: fred6008
Date: May 07, 2001 at 07:31:44 Pacific
Subject: Can I have 6 Floppy Disk Drives in DOS??
Reply:
The bios supports two floppy drives. If you want more, you have to hook them up in the manner of a CD-ROM whose driver is
DRIVER.SYS. To do this you would have to dedicate two slots to floppy drive controllers or get a special controller with multiple connectors.
A similar thing is the LS-120, but the manufacturer has its own DRIVER.SYS. Other than a zip drive or an LS-120, why would a lot of floppy drives be desirable?
