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ImageDisk with multiple floppy controllers?

bolex

Experienced Member
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I have a DOS computer that has 3 floppy controllers. To date, I've only been able to get ImageDisk to work with the primary floppy controller. I see nothing in the documentation that says this is possible, but I was wondering if there might be some undocumented command line to have the application look somewhere other than 3F0h for the floppy controller. That would be sweet if it does.

My system looks like this:
Floppy CNTRL 1 - 3F0h, IRQ 6, DMA 2
Floppy CNTRL 2 - 370h, IRQ 5, DMA 1
Floppy CNTRL 3 - 3E8h, IRQ 3, DMA 3

If this cannot work, I was wondering if there is another application (teledisk maybe) that can image directly from a 2nd controller. Any recommendation would be insightful. Thanks!
 
I'm pretty sure that IMD requires that all controllers use IRQ 6, DMA 2; only the port need be different. Some of my later stuff can use a DISKETTE.CFG file; later versions of TeleDisk can use that (i.e. port, DMA and IRQ can be different for all controllers); I believe that COPYQM can also do this as well as, 22DISK.

Please do not ask for a later version of TeleDisk--I can't give you one.
 
My system looks like this:
Floppy CNTRL 1 - 3F0h, IRQ 6, DMA 2
Floppy CNTRL 2 - 370h, IRQ 5, DMA 1
Floppy CNTRL 3 - 3E8h, IRQ 3, DMA 3

Could you give us some more info on this system like CPU, OS and how many and what drives you are using, please?
TIA!
 
Well, he did say DOS in his initial post. The fact that he's got three controllers means that it's a system with ISA slots. The CPU hardly matters. Teledisk and IMD will work on anything from an 8088 system on up.
 
I know he mentioned DOS. But does DOS recognize all these three cards? AFAIK DOS only recognizes the cards supported by the BIOS and normally that is only the 3F0/6/2 combination. So I wondered how OP got the other ones to work.
 
Could you give us some more info on this system like CPU, OS and how many and what drives you are using, please?
TIA!

This is a 386DX running DOS with 20MB ram.

The Primary Floppy Controller is a Everex EV-8120A (4 floppy controller with IDE).
The 2nd Floppy Controller is a modified Exabyte Tape Controller. I've added a 2nd header and replaced the crystal so it behaves like a Floppy Controller.

The BIOS only recognizes floppy A and B, so I'm using the SUNIX driver sdrive.sys for the 3 and 4th floppy as well as the 2nd floppy controller.

The 3rd Floppy Controller is a Flagstaff Engineering 8" Floppy Controller Ver. 9.2. I've installed this controller and the proprietary driver is loading, but I don't have any floppy's currently attached. I'm just now testing. I'm getting ready to add the 8" external drive in the pictures I have below.

The computer also has a Future Domain SCSI card with a few FC-1's attached.

Right now the computer has 14 floppy drives. The Flagstaff card supports 4 floppies so I may get that count to 18 if I can get that card to work. Here are some pictures.

https://imgur.com/a/Fu9jiVO
 
I'm pretty sure that IMD requires that all controllers use IRQ 6, DMA 2; only the port need be different. Some of my later stuff can use a DISKETTE.CFG file; later versions of TeleDisk can use that (i.e. port, DMA and IRQ can be different for all controllers); I believe that COPYQM can also do this as well as, 22DISK.

Please do not ask for a later version of TeleDisk--I can't give you one.

Thanks Chuck! I'll give those a try. I've never tried Teledisk, but I do have it somewhere. I think I'll try that next and then just use TD02IMD to standardize what I have. I've used 22disk with the system to verify a few QD CP/M images I've made. It works well.
 
My recollection of the Flagstaff card is that it was very early, so it may not use the same conventions as a standard PC controller. You may be limited in what you can do with it.
 
My recollection of the Flagstaff card is that it was very early, so it may not use the same conventions as a standard PC controller. You may be limited in what you can do with it.

You are probably right, but I thought I would give it a shot. The flagstaff controller certainly does not act like a normal IBM compatible floppy controller and requires it's own driver to work. I also have a sneaky suspicion that the 37 pin external connector is not standard either.
 
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