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1.44 Mb floppy drive on 8088 PC XT

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skouris33

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2014
Messages
66
Location
Larisa, Greece
Hi! Is there a way to add a 1.44 Mb floppy drive to an 8088 PC XT that has internal cabling for 5.25 360 Kb floppy drive? Thanks!
 
Certainly. You can either modify the cable by crimping on an IDC 34 pin female header close to the existing edge connector, or get a new cable with both types of connectors--or simply use an edge-to-header adapter of the sort that used to come with 3.5"-to-5.15" drive mounting adapters. I suspect that there are still some wandering around.

Startech still offers a universal floppy cable
 
Keep in mind that the 1.44mb drive will only operate with at 720k without a high density controller.

If you just need to move files back and forth to a "modern" machine, that can work well. If you are using a USB 3.5" floppy drive on the other machine, just make sure it supports 720k disks - some don't. And it is easy to use a 1.44mb disk as a 720k disk just by covering the HD notch (technically there is a difference between the two but in practice it works OK).

If you really want 1.44mb capacity, you will need an 8-bit ISA HD controller with a BIOS, but those are rather rare.
 
Thank you very much for your reply! Except for the motherboard cabling I will need a power supply adapter for 1.44 floppy too because my pc has the large one for 5.25 only. does it come with the universal floppy cable?
 
Power cable adapters for the large, molex connector to the small type used on the 3.5" drive are readily available. It's also easy to make from the two parts.
 
Also a BIOS extension is needed for high density drives on PC XTs

Also a BIOS extension is needed for high density drives on PC XTs

It's not only about getting the correct power adapter. It's also related with having BIOS support for these high density floppy drives.
Because I ran also in these problems, I created a (hopefully good explanation) for it at http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php (if this entry is read month later, you have to look into the blog by searching entries from March 2014).
 
I think my system supports 1.44 Mb floppy drive because at start up I get a BIOS message referring to 1.44 Mb drive option selection. Thank you for your help!
 
You don't need a BIOS extension if you stick with DS2D floppies. At any rate, the subject has probably come up over 50 times here in the past few years.
 
skouris33 said:
Hi! Is there a way to add a 1.44 Mb floppy drive to an 8088 PC XT that has internal cabling for 5.25 360 Kb floppy drive? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I use a MicroSolutions Backpack drive I bought from a member here in the forums. It connects via parallel port, and allows my to keep both of my full height 5.25" floppy drives installed in the main PC, and I didn't have to lose a bay needed for another drive, like a full height hard disc, that most XT's came out with. I know a lot of XT owners, who have replaced their full height floppy and hard disc drives, with half height ones, but as user, Someguy, and others have reiterated, they don't have a full 1.44 MB 3.5" drive without getting a higher density controller. My installation however; with my Backpack drive connected via parallel port, I didn't have to use an internal drive bay, and kept all 4 of my PC's full height bays; two full height hard discs in the IBM 5161 expansion unit plus the two full height floppy drives in the main PC.

Here's a link to a brand new one on E-Bay that is selling for $39.95. But in all reality, you could possibly find one for far less. Mine, for instance, was a used drive, and I paid only $10.00 including a 5.25, and 3.5" install floppy. The new ones don't come with 5.25" install floppy discs though. I can send you an install floppy if you decide to go this rout. BTW, MicroSolutions also makes/made CD-ROM Backpack drives, CD-reader/re-writable drives, but anything writable will not work with the older PC/XT, and clones. They even have a tape drive that works with the older PC/XT's and compatibles.

The floppy and CD-ROM drives work great with my 5150 system. Although you can typically only have one or the other installed at any given time. I have my system set up so that the drives don't automatically load at startup, and will only run when I run the command for which drive I prefer. It did take some playing, but I got it to work with both floppy, and CD-ROM. Personally, I love mine. It just gave me so much more freedom to move files, and programs to and from my IBM 5150 PC. Of course, using the CD-ROM to bring stuff to the 5150 systems hard discs was so much easier as well. Its really amazing how just adding a single drive made in the usability of the entire system.

Anyway, here are a couple of links to both a new MicroSolutions Backpack floppy, drive, and a used one. There doesn't seem to be nearly as many on E-Bay as there were only a few weeks ago. Perhaps, if you're willing to go with the backpack option, someone here might be able to sell you one.

New:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MicroSoluti...=US_Floppy_Zip_Jaz_Drives&hash=item3f1ebd95d8

Used: (I don't like this one because its missing the faceplate.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MicroSoluti...=US_Floppy_Zip_Jaz_Drives&hash=item2335c7fc55
 
Well to be clear, there is two issues:

- older floppy controllers do not support the 500kbps data rate used on 1.2 or 1.44 media
- BIOS can't tell DOS the real drive spec

Software can fix the second point, but you're always going to need a controller capable of the higher data rate (If needed, I just grab a cheap 16 bit multi IO card and disable the features I don't want).

Sounds like the OP actually has 1.44 support in the BIOS? Which should make things pretty smooth sailing if correct.
 
skouris33 said:
I think my system supports 1.44 Mb floppy drive because at start up I get a BIOS message referring to 1.44 Mb drive option selection. Thank you for your help!
Click to expand...

I'm curious as to exactly what type of machine or motherboard this is. Does this use an integrated disk controller on the motherboard? If so, the manufacturer very well could have included bios HD support.
 
Peek inside of your PC XT and take a look at the floppy controller. It sounds as if you've got an aftermarket addition. It's also possible that you have the PC/286, which really isn't a PC XT at all--just looks like one.
 
I think that my PC has an aftermarket addition, but I'm certain that it is an 8088 because I have run many DOS diagnostics programs that certified this, along with its speed (which is 4.77 MHz without the turbo mode)
 
Yesterday I ordered the motherboard universal cable along with power molex adaptor. In about 3 weeks, when they arrive, I will let you know if it worked!
 
bettablue said:
I use a MicroSolutions Backpack drive
...
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for informing us about this! I wanted a similar solution and after reading your post searched for it on ebay. A new & sealed one is on its way from a kind seller willing to ship it over to Greece for the excellent price of £13.00 in total!
 
konc said:
Thank you so much for informing us about this! I wanted a similar solution and after reading your post searched for it on ebay. A new & sealed one is on its way from a kind seller willing to ship it over to Greece for the excellent price of £13.00 in total!
Click to expand...

Glad to be of some help. Personally, since I use the backpack drive and a 1.44 external USB floppy on my Windows 7 computer, I almost don't need a tweener. It takes a bit of time to move things via floppy, but it works for me.
 
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