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HARD DISK FOR TANDY 1000/EX
by A.B. Trevor, 12 April 1987
As of this writing, Tandy does not offer a hard disk drive for the
Tandy 1000/EX, but an external 20 meg drive is available from Hard
Drive Specialist. The Tandy Memory Plus Expansion (MPE) board is a
prerequisite. The controller card is installed internally to the top
connector of the MPE board, meaning that you may have only one other
device installed with the hard disk -- most likely a modem or RS-232
card. A short ribbon cable converts the controller's standard PC
edge connector to mate with the 62 pin Tandy "Plus" socket on the
MPE. A two foot 54 conductor ribbon cable and 3 loose power wires
originate on the top of the controller and are routed out the back
of the EX to the drive itself. This makes for a VERY tight fit in
the EX expansion cavity. The ribbon cable connectors and ROM chip
extend above the board and touch the expansion cover; in my case,
the cover actually bulges out a bit with the hard disk controller
in place.
The drive itself is mounted in a Tandy plastic case measuring
11.5"x6.5"x2.75". (It looks like the case for the external 3.5"
floppy drive... very nice). An unusually bright (for an HD) round
LED is mounted on the front of the drive enclosure as an access
indicator. The drive is quiet, but makes enough noise that you
hardly need the light. Note that the only cables attached to the
drive go to the EX -- power is obtained from the EX as well. Aside
from the casual cabling and the very tight fit of the installed
controller, it is a nice looking, neat installation.
The drive comes pre-formatted, but HDS says that it can be
reformatted if you like either with the programs HSECT, FDISK, and HFORMAT.
Or, you can use DEBUG to execute a BIOS routine.
Speaking of the BIOS, I have had one or two strange hangs with
certain copy protected programs since I installed the hard disk,
but other than that, it appears to be compatible with all software
I have tried.
Performance by today's standards is poor, but so is the drive IBM
supplies with XT's. Still, you wonder how much HDS saved by
selecting such a slow drive. Most of my applications are not
disk intensive, so it makes no difference. It is just great to be
freed from floppy swapping.
SPECS:
Track to track: 15.15ms avg
Random/TT mix: 44.51ms avg
Random seek: 72.51ms avg
Cost: $729
Hard Drive Specialist
16208 Hickory Knoll
Houston, TX 77059
713-480-6000
While this is a good choice if you already have an EX, or for some
reason you particulary want a high performance EX. But it doesn't make
sense to go out and buy an EX with the intent of installing hard
disk, since you can get an SX with hard disk for no more money, now
that 20 meg disks can be gotten for around $350. I happen to like the
EX form factor, and now that I have the HDS disk, I wouldn't swap
the EX for anything short of a PS/2 Model 80.