There are specialty quad floppy controllers that have an integrated bios that adds 4 drive support

rmay635703 wrote on 2026-09-21, 23:49:

There are specialty quad floppy controllers that have an integrated bios that adds 4 drive support

Where can I get one ?

Why? You been banned from eBay for buying too many Dell workstations and mid grade headphones? 🤣

Another option is to add second fdd controller that has the ability to set an alternative fdd port address and use this driver https://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum/technical-s … ver=#post919840

What is the better OS to use with old floppy drives ?
Win95 or Win98 ?
Purpose for loading old DOS games and software ?

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2026-09-22, 02:26:

rmay635703 wrote on 2026-09-21, 23:49:

There are specialty quad floppy controllers that have an integrated bios that adds 4 drive support

Where can I get one ?

First result in a duckduck search

https://texelec.com/product/quad-flop-four-po … ppy-controller/

The easier way is to find a controller with integrated support for 4 drives.

A controller that can be set to secondary is definitely easier to find. E.g. Adaptec AHA-1542 is known to work.
Driver.sys and drvparm are the dos tools that make it work. Never tried with Win 9x.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2026-09-22, 06:03:

What is the better OS to use with old floppy drives ?
Win95 or Win98 ?
Purpose for loading old DOS games and software ?

Extra setup is required to use DOS mode in Windows 9x for more than maintaining Windows.

Why not just use DOS?

If you want a graphical interface, version 6.22's "supplemental" disk can install one called "DOS SHELL".

the early Adaptec ISA 154x scsi controllers do offer a FDD controller with support for 4? Floppydrives.
Use VGACOPYpro 5.3 for making use of more than two floppy-drives.
My Schneider TowerAT has also support for 4 Floppy drives. On my IBM PS/2 M56 I use one internal FDD (3,5") and with the MCA FDD Controller two additional drives. One 5,25" internal 1,2MB and an external 5,25 360K.

Because the Bios offers only two drives you have to load drivers for the two additional drives. They will show themselv as D:/E:/F: whatever is not blocked by a harddrive or harddrive-partition or mounted network-share.

I used to own a GCR? GCS, GRC can’t remember the brand
ISA HD+ 4 Floppy expansion card with a bios and controller for large drives and 2.88 floppy’s

Used to be the most common controller (outside IBMs own pc floppy controller)
and I and others had threads about them here and on vcfed.

Went looking and can’t find any of the threads.

The texelec looks to fit the job though the grc also could work as a way to also recognize large hds.

If he doesn’t mind a 720kb limit the old IBM 5150 floppy controller does the job too though I don’t remember what drives 3 and 4 look like in a 486.

Having your first HD as drive E or a floppy as c, d or e used to create strange side effects with some software

rmay635703 wrote on 2026-09-22, 17:14:

Having your first HD as drive E or a floppy as c, d or e used to create strange side effects with some software

For the record such things aren't completely matter of the past

Say in modern windows you can assign a drive letter to your HDD as you like, so including A: & B: , but you can't put your swap file there.

To say better, you can, but at the next boot Windows will start with a temporary emergency swapfile, just as you had it on a removed HDD

I currently have such card with 2 floppy connectors on my desk. It has the DP8473 and I hope it will work with the DC2.SYS driver. I cannot find it on theretroweb
https://theretroweb.com/chips/6406

I've worked with Floppy drives a LOT (author of ImageDisk), and I often want to use more than 2 different floppy types.

Although the NEC765 FDC chip used in a PC supports 4 floppies, and almost all drives have 4 different drive selects, the fundamental problem with a PC is IBM thought their customers were not capable of understanding or moving drive select jumpers and they didn't want dealers to have to stock separate A: and B: Drives.

So... they came up with the twist in the floppy cable that routes select A(1) to the B: select of the drive at end end of the cable (after twist), leaving select B(2) to pass through to B: in the middle drive (before the twist) - It also provides for two "motor on" signals, one for each drive.

This is why PC drives all have to be jumpered as B(2). It also "uses" the wires for the C(3) and D(4) selects, meaning they can't be used with a PC cable and hence are not configurable in almost all PC BIOS.

I experimented with a second floppy controller/cable and also a third-party floppy controller/cable with "native" floppy support for 4 drives. But since IMD uses capabilities (SD, different sector sizes etc.) that are not normally use on a PC and hence are not supported properly by a LOT of PC controllers (making it tricky to find a "good" one), I ultimately decided to stick with the one controller with PCs two standard selects and use external methods to allow multiple drive type to be easily switched in/out - fortunately IMD doesn't go though BIOS and talks to the floppy controller directly (I usually have the floppy configured in BIOS as "none" in my IMD system)

If you don't need to access more than two floppies at the same time, this might work for you as well. I've done it by making a "multi headed" cable with switches to more the selects to different connectors, and a the "super simple" method of just bring the floppy cable out and swapping the drives externally.
You can see a system set up this way here: Re: Windows 95 on a Breadboard

FWIW: It does seem, that most IMD users don't actually need more than a couple drive types and those that are really into multiple old system/floppy types (usually museums) find swapping drives this way much easier and more reliable than multi-controller or other methods.

Btw, the pic linked above if a very small "board mounted" system where it is very easy to get the floppy cable out to a usable position.

I've also done this with "properly housed" systems by either finding/making a floppy cable long enough to come out a card slot at the back, and/or by making an removable external cable connected by a 37-pin "D" connector mounted in a card slot.
You can see one of these cables here: Re: TexElec Quad-Flop (FDC) and Windows 95