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Wanted: 8-bit ISA 3.5 inch Floppy Controller

J

JollyRogers

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2008
Messages
19
My XT could use a 3 1/2 " floppy controller to help me transfer files from my modern machines to it. Some quick googling/Ebaying turned up nothing promising in my price range. (80 dollars is alot to put in to a 40 dollar computer with a 75 dollar keyboard...)

Im in the province of Ontario, so something located in north america would be fantastic.

JR
 
If you find a 16-bit ISA FDD/HDD controller, you could use that. As of I know, the upper 8 bits sticking out (not connected) are only used for 16-bit HDD access (not for FDD access).
 
Yes, as others said it is much more cost effective to use a 16-bit multi I/O controller from a 486 system. I use one of these in my XT to drive a 1.44meg 3.5" drive. Normally it will operate as a 360k or 720k drive (depending on your XT's BIOS revision)

In addition to this, I use a little utility called 2M v3.0. This software includes a special TSR for XT systems that will emulate an AT BIOS and allow you to use your 3.5" drive as a 1.44meg drive as long as you use the 16-bit controller.

My personal preference are the 16-bit multi i/o controllers that use the Winbond chip.
 
Anonymous Coward said:
Yes, as others said it is much more cost effective to use a 16-bit multi I/O controller from a 486 system. I use one of these in my XT to drive a 1.44meg 3.5" drive. Normally it will operate as a 360k or 720k drive (depending on your XT's BIOS revision)

In addition to this, I use a little utility called 2M v3.0. This software includes a special TSR for XT systems that will emulate an AT BIOS and allow you to use your 3.5" drive as a 1.44meg drive as long as you use the 16-bit controller.

My personal preference are the 16-bit multi i/o controllers that use the Winbond chip.
Click to expand...

yep. i've never heard of the 2M utility, but i simply boot my 8088's with Caldera DR-DOS (i use 7.03 but i've tested this successfully down to 7.01) and it has built-in 1.44 MB support no matter what the system's actual BIOS does.
 
I'm not familiar with that particular Goldstar chip. I have a Goldstar Prime II controller a 386 machine, and it also seems to be pretty good. I'm not sure if it works in an 8-bit slot though, since I've never tried.
 
I actually do have an 8-bit FDC controller (GSI Model 11), that has a connector for 2.88 MB drives and another connector for everything else.

It seems to have it's own on-board BIOS and I've seen it mentioned in the same sentence as the Compaticard.

Rumour has it that it will also do SD work (most of the time).

I haven't actually had a chance to test it out, but, it's in the pile.
 
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