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How many HDD can a 5150/5160 use?

S

Shadow Lord

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Hello all,

I was just wondering if there was a limit on the number of HDD that could be placed in an 5150 and/or 5160. I always assumed it was two, but I am not sure. Would it be possible to say have two FDDs (A:/B:), and Three HDD? (C:, D:, E:)?

Can the original IBM controller handle two drives? Or is it only the controllers that came w/ the 5161 that allowed for two drives? Also would it be possible to have the original controller assign the drives connected to it as D: and E: and use another drive (say on an XT-IDE card) as C: drive?

Thanks.
 
Using the original MFM controller, two. The BIOS does not support secondary controllers.

However, you can add two more using an XTIDE, as there's no resource conflict. Or add 7 drives using a SCSI adapter.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Using the original MFM controller, two. The BIOS does not support secondary controllers.

However, you can add two more using an XTIDE, as there's no resource conflict. Or add 7 drives using a SCSI adapter.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chuck. So as long as I avoid the resource conflicts it should be okay. How about the drive letter assignments? Is that decided based on the location/address of the controller card BIOS in RAM? i.e. if the XTIDE is addressed earlier it gets the lower drive letter? Thanks.
 
This begs the question too, that if one were able to connect 2 internal drives, what about those connectors that allow the connection of up to 2 more external drives. I have seen an XT machine with 2 alf height floppy drives, 2 half height internal hard disks and 2 external half height hard disks for a total of 4 hard drives. Could the builder also have added another card toa allow the connection of two or more additional external hard disk drives? Assuming of course, there are enough IRQs...


Shadow Lord said:
Hello all,

I was just wondering if there was a limit on the number of HDD that could be placed in an 5150 and/or 5160. I always assumed it was two, but I am not sure. Would it be possible to say have two FDDs (A:/B:), and Three HDD? (C:, D:, E:)?
Click to expand...
 
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