1.44 Meg 3.5" drive on AT&T 6300: it works!

[Jeffrey Miller]

*
After months of searching and then finally waiting till I could find a
dealer of 1.44 Meg 3.5" disks, I have reached Nirvana.  I have a 1.44
Meg 3.5" drive as drive B: on my 6300.

The drive also reads/writes 720k disks perfectly.  I got the drive from
Shamrock of Westlake Village, CA (805)373-7847, for $149.  I also needed
a controller card which supports the 500k/sec xfer rate necessary for
the drive to operate at high density.  The card was $100.  It also
controls my existing 5-1/4" drive.

The floppy controller on the 6300 mboard had to be disabled.  All that
is necessary is to lift pin 17 of the 12L10 PAL at location 6E next to
the 2 ROM chips (thanks to Pete Fales for that info).  The only switch
change necessary was DIPSW-1 sw7 to OFF, to tell the machine there are
2 floppies now.  (When you lift pins, always lift them *very* slowly.
This helps prevent metal fatigue.  Just lift it enough to clear the
socket).

The drive came with everything necessary: mounting hardware for 3-1/2 and
5-1/4 enclosures, drivers, and as an extra, a fast backup program called
TakeTwo.  The instructions were very clear.  If you should try this, re-
member that for the 3-1/2" drive, pin 34 of the connector must be connected
to the controller.  But you'll have to put a piece of tape over the same
position on the 5-1/4" drive's connector, which must remain open to the
controller.

I did have one minor problem with the driver.  The installation program
was looking for a file called FTDRIVE.SYS, which didn't exist.  But
there was another .SYS file available.  So I went into the install .com
file, patched in the name of the existing .SYS file, and everything
worked fine.  When contacted, Shamrock said this was missed in the
first ones shipped.

Unfortunately, Shamrock did not have enclosures when I bought my drive.
I checked with them for about 2 months and they still did not have them
ready, so I bought one from some company, maybe Jameco or PC Source.  But
the drive cable had no way to get out of the machine.  So I picked up
some 34-pin socket connectors from Jameco and some cable, and made up
a short cable which I ran out of an empty slot space in the back.  It
just goes up to the case and everythings fine.  Ideally, the slot mount
on the controller card itself should have a cutout in which I mount a
34-pin connector and run the cable from the back, but no problem.  By the
way, the drive comes with the capability to use both a socket connector

                      :::::::::::::::::

like this, or an edge connector, a very nice feature through the use of
a small adapter circuit board.  I used the socket since room was limited
inside the enclosure.

All in all, the disk access is not the fastest, but having that much
storage on a floppy is great.  I had a hard time finding 1.44 Meg disks.
The best price I saw was $39 per box of 10, but like all the other places,
they had none in stock.  I finally found some for $42 at Richard Young
Products, Deerfield Beach, FL (800)325-0136.  Last night I received them
and that's why I'm posting today.  I wanted to make sure.

I recommend the stuff highly.  And of course the usual disclaimers.

Jeff
-- 
* Jeff Miller:  Ashton-Tate  52 Oakland Ave., E. Hartford, CT  06108-9911  *
* (203) 522-2116 x257  UUCP: ...!seismo!utah-cs!utah-gr!pwa-b!mmintl!jeffm *
*                         or ...!ihnp4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!jeffm          *