============================================================================= AST RESEARCH, INC. TECHNICAL BULLETIN #0428B 04-04-90 ============================================================================= PREMIUM/286 AND 386 THIRD FLOPPY SUPPORT The following summarizes installation considerations for a third floppy device in AST Premium Computers: PREMIUM/286 HARDWARE CONSIDERATIONS PREMIUM/286 systems equipped with part number 202143-003 or 202143-004 system boards include embedded diskette drive controller circuitry that allows support for a third floppy device. The third floppy is connected to the 34 pin connector on the system board with an additional floppy drive controller cable (AST part number 220085-001). The cable is attached to the third floppy device and the 34 pin connector J20 on the system board. PREMIUM/386 HARDWARE CONSIDERATIONS All PREMIUM/386 system boards are built with embedded third floppy diskette control circuitry. The same cable (AST part number 220085-001) is required to install the third floppy device. This cable connects to the P4 connector on the 386 system board. SOFTWARE CONSIDERATIONS Because the third floppy device is not directly recognized by the system BIOS, two device drivers, DRIVER.SYS and ASTDSK.DRV, must be inserted into the CONFIG.SYS file. DRIVER.SYS is provided with MS-DOS Version 3.3 Release 1.3 and ASTDSK.DRV is provided on the AST Utilities diskette shipped with all PREMIUM systems. DOS VERSIONS AST recommends and supports the use of AST MS-DOS Version 3.3 Release 1.3. For best results, users of earlier DOS versions should upgrade to Version 3.3 Release 1.3. Contact your local AST Service Center for additional information. INSTALLATION The AST Utilities Diskette provides menu-driven automatic installation of the third floppy device drivers into the CONFIG.SYS file. The following are the configuration commands for each of the possible hardware combinations. The commands listed below are supported under DOS Version 3.2 and 3.3 unless otherwise noted: For 360 KB drive (5.25-inch diskettes) DEVICE=C:\DOS\ASTDSK.DRV 0 DEVICE=C:\DOS\DRIVER.SYS /D:2 /F:0 For 720 KB drive (3.5-inch diskettes) DEVICE=C:\DOS\ASTDSK.DRV 2 DEVICE=C:\DOS\DRIVER.SYS /D:2 /F:2 For 1.2 MB drive (5.25-inch diskettes) DEVICE=C:\DOS\ASTDSK.DRV 1 DEVICE=C:\DOS\DRIVER.SYS /D:2 /F:1 /S:15 For 1.44 MB drive (3.5-inch diskettes) DEVICE=C:\DOS\ASTDSK.DRV 3 DEVICE=C:\DOS\DRIVER.SYS /D:2 /F:7 /S:18 (use /F:3 for DOS 3.2)