Wanted ISA 8-Bit HD Floppy Controller

[Physikant]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to upgrade my IBM PC XT. The included floppy controller only supports 720kB floppies, so most disk images (in combination with a gotek) are not supported by the controller.
I'm now looking for a solution to connect my gotek with HD floppy images (so 1,44 MB) to the 8-Bit ISA-Bus of the PC XT. I heard that a BIOS update is necessary on the XT, but besindes that, I need a better controller card, but all that I've found are 16-bit ISA.
Does anybody have a spare controller that I could use in this siuation? I don't care if its a modern PCB or 80s vintage, if possible something green or brown would be nice (I really dislike the current trend of designing retro-hardware with red, blue or black PCBs ...).

Thanks in advance!

Niko

 

[matze79]

If you want to build it yourself (may also found on some auctions sites prebuild)

GitHub - skiselev/isa-fdc: ISA Floppy Disk and Serial Controller

ISA Floppy Disk and Serial Controller. Contribute to skiselev/isa-fdc development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

or i may have a period correct controller, i check that.

Many 16bit Controllers can also run in 8Bit Slot, i used a Goldstar Prime 2 (only Floppy Controller, Serial and Parallel useable in 8Bit Slot)
If you add floppy bios rom to your system, it also can boot from HD FLoppydisc.
Without ROM you need to boot with DD Drive / Harddrive and load 2M-XBIOS DOS Driver in DOS.
Afterwards you can access HD Floppys.

 

[iPonRMA]

I think i have it, PM on the way.

 

[Half-Saint]

I think the easiest solution is to use a 3com ethernet card and burn the HD floppy support in the ROM of the card.