6300 Disk Replacement/ Upgrades.
ihor.j.kinal
ijk at cbnewsh.ATT.COM
Tue Apr 11 22:06:57 AEST 1989
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
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