6300 Disk Replacement/ Upgrades.

[ihor.j.kinal]

Disk A in my two floppy drive 6300 has shown some distressing
symptoms [it causes the machine to reboot each time I open the drive
door]. 

I've  recabled the drives so that I'm using the other drive as my only
one [at least I can change diskettes now].

Rather than attempt to fix the drive, I was thinking of replacing
it.  Here are my options, and I'm asking for any helpful advice or tips
from netnews land. My 6300 is almost 5 years old.

1).  Junk the entire machine, buy a new one, or have it upgraded.
[Since I don't use my machine all that much, I don't see the point of
that approach, but I am getting tired of manipulating all those diskettes
SO I FEEL A HARD DISK IS JUSTIFIED].

2). Buy a half-height disk.  This seems appealing, since it would
fit it the hole just created.

ARE THERE COMPATBILITY PROBLEMS?  DO I NEED SPECIAL ROMS?  IS
IT WORTHWHILE [or even possible] TO GET a 16 BIT DISK DRIVER?
OR WOULD IT BE BETTER TO GET a FASTER DRIVE. 

Again, I'm not interested in spending 1000s of dollars [could
by a new 286 then].

I'd be very interested in any recommendations or horror stories.
SPECIFIC BRANDS/MODEL TO BUY OR AVOID.

3). Get an external drive - save the hole for something else
[probably too much clutter, so unless someone knows of a good
reason, I'll dismiss this].

4). Get a hard disk card - I've seen ads for 30 meg at around $300
and up; I've got plenty of slots, so I don't care about the
slimness of any drive, just its compatability,reliability [primary] and
efficiency. Again, appreciated any advice / war stories.
SPECIFIC BRANDS/MODEL TO BUY OR AVOID.

Advantages of this approach are:

	A).  If I upgrade my system, it's easy to carry this card across
		[even if I get a hrad disk system, I could use it for fast backups].
			
	B).  Leaves my drives free for item 5.
				
5).  Get a 3.5 inch floppy drive.  I presume I would need another floppy
	card; what about DOS [I'm using AT&T 2.11] or ROMS upgrades.
	[Should I call AT&T TECH SUPPORT? ]  What's the cheapest way to go
	here?  [I'm not interested in spending $400 for a drive, since I won't
	be using it much]. 
			
[NOTE: I came across an ad for a product called Bridge-It 3.5, for
$59 [800-523-8777]; they claim that they make 3.5 in work with compatibles
for DOS 2.0 [no need to change DOS or BIOS].

This sounds like an interesting option.
			
			>>>>>> Please direct all responses to : <<<<<<<
			
			violin!ijk
			    or
			cbnewsh!ijk
			
			Thanks,
			Ihor Kinal
			HR 1G-238
			Red Hill, NJ.
			201 615-4374