PCs that support only one floppy drive in hardware

[Scott Stevens]

On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 13:03:25 -0400
Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> wrote:

> >
> >Subject: Re: PCs that support only one floppy drive in hardware
> >   From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch at 30below.com>
> >   Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 12:47:02 -0400
> >     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> >     <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> >
> >Rumor has it that Chuck Guzis may have mentioned these words:
> >>On 10/9/2005 at 11:04 AM Scott Stevens wrote:
> >>
> >> >I've never seen a PCI card that had a floppy interface on it.  I'm
> >sure> >they exist.  Not in my junkbox, however, and I don't have the
> >schematic> >diagram for them.
> >>
> >>And there's a good reason for that.  The PCI bus has no access to
> >legacy >8237-type DMA, so legacy driver code would not work on such a
> >beast.
> >
> >I've seen several BIOSs can be set up for that - you can set the IRQ
> >& DMA on a per-slot basis.
> >
> >However, I'll admit that it's a crapshoot... you'd want to make sure
> >that the mobo supports what you want to do. ;-) I'm also *not* going
> >to say that WindersXP will actually support it, as you *might* have
> >to disable Plug-N-Pray to get it to work.
> >
> >Laterz,
> >Roger "Merch" Merchberger
> >--
> 
> Roger, you hit the nail on the head.  If you want to use XP and the
> latest PentiumMMV at 200ghz and read old media it'seems there is an
> incongreuity there.   It would appear more reasonable to use an older
> less underloaded machine and a more flexible version of winders for
> such a task.
> 
Or the best version of all, i.e. one you can 'snap off and throw away'
like Windows 1/2/3 on DOS.

For my new data-reading system I've cobbled up, I have it running
Windows 98, but tweaked it to not boot to Windows at all, just wait at
the command prompt.  Then after I've created images and what-not, I let
it go the rest of the way in so I can copy the image files created over
the network.

I don't have a 486 system up and going for these purposes mainly because
at present I sit at a 'console' that is a 4-way KVM switch, and it's
simpler just to plug everything into this one desk.  Most '486 systems
use the older non-PS/2 keyboard connector.  (adapters are available,
etc. etc.)

It's 'convenience' and 'using what is lying around' that is the root of
this whole thread.  A more sensible person would stop messing with
systems that only support one floppy drive.

> For tasks like this where the interface is going to be "unusual" XP, 
> win2000 and NT are likely not the best choice as they are known to
> poorly or not support untested/certified hardware.
> 
I can't think of anything at all where XP is the suitable choice.  Well,
maybe a preinstall where the manufacturer has not gone out of their way
to provide driver support for anything else.