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Jan, 18, 1987
Kenai, Alaska
The following is a narrative of my experiences installing Tandy's
20 Meg Hard Card, (#25-1029), in my 1000A. I offer this tale of
woe in hopes that it may save someone the time and frustration
that I went through.
For the record my 1K is equiped with 2 Floppies, A Memory
Plus Board w/512K, An 8087 Math Co-processor, a IBM Async Card,
and the 01.01.00 ROM. I normally use Tandy's 2.11.22 MS-DOS, but
have also used, without problem, all versions of PC-DOS to 3.2.
I decided to install a Hard-Card rather than a Internal Hard
Drive, because I wanted to retain both floppies. I picked the
Tandy Card mainly because I thougt I would have fewer problems
with the installation than I would with a 3rd Party manufacturer.
I live in Alaska and there are no competent dealers or Computer
Stores in my area. I have installed both 5-1/4 Internal Drives
and Drive Cards in IBM's and Clones with minimal problems and
thought I would have little problem with the installation in my
1K.
I ordered the card from a reputable dealer in Michigan.
When I ordered the card I told the dealer what the configuration
of my machine was and asked him if he knew of any reason why it
would not work in my machine. He assured me it would work fine
and just follow the directions given in the documentation.
When I received the card I carefully read the installation
instructions and felt confident that indeed, this should be a
snap! It should be noted that the card can be installed on 1000,
1000SX,1200,or 3000. The manual advised that the board came
configured for the 1K. I installed the board booted up. The
drive came with a Utilities disk that contained software and
batch files to automate the low-level, partition, and DOS format
procedures. Following instructions I prepared a disk and added the
required files from my DOS diskette. I used PC-DOS 3.2 and
followed the directions from a README file on the Utilities disk.
All appeared to go fine until It got to the DOS format and then
came the error, 'FORMAT FAILURE'. I re-ran the procedure with
the same results. Then, following directions in the README file I
ran each of the steps by itself without the batch files. All to
no avail, and the same end, 'FORMAT FAILURE'. All seem to work
fine until I got to the DOS format.
Not knowing what to do next, I put the cover back on,
booted up communications on the floppies so I could tell my woes
and possibly soak up some sympathy. I called King's Bench BBS in
hopes of finding someone who could help. For the unknowing, this
board is dedicated to users of the 1K group and giving support
where Tandy falls short. I put out a call for help and was soon
ovecome with responses. Some I tried, some I already had, but I
still couldn't get the thing to work.
I had tried all the versions of DOS I had, 2.1, 3.0, 3.1,
3.2. All of these versions were PC-DOS. I decided to try to go
with TANDY's 2.11.22 but found that I was missing the Hard Disk
format program HFORMAT.COM. DOS 2.11.22's version of FORMAT.COM
will not format a Hard Drive. It took a while but I was finally
able to secure a copy on the needed program. I decided to try
the batch files and programs on the Utilities disk to install
2.11.22. As it run through the low-level, then the partition,
then the DOS format I held my breath, waiting for the, now
familiar 'FORMAT FAILURE'. Instead up pops a screen with 611
little dots and the DOS format begins to execute. It took
approximately 20 minutes for it to complete, but when it did, it
terminate successfully.
It was about two weeks from the time I received the drive
to the time that I was able to finally format the Drive. During
this time there were countless calls to King's Bench, 2 calls
to Western Digital, (makers of the controller), 1 call to Tandy,
2 calls the the dealer I purchased it from, and un-numbered cans
of Silver Bullets drank in utter disgust and frustration. No one
I had contacted knew of any reason why I shouldn't be able to use
PC-DOS to format, not even TANDY!!! Yet, this appears to be what
the problem was. As a matter of fact, after I had the drive
Formatted I booted up with 3.2 in Drive A and found that it would
not even recognize the Hard Drive. It appears I'm stuck with
2.11.22 unless I take a chance and by Tandy's version of 3.2 when
it comes out, but I doubt if I will be able to find anyone at
Tandy who will be able to tell me if it will work or not.
The following are some points of interest:
1. Why didn't someone at Tandy or Western Digital know of
the need use only a Tandy version DOS for my configuration?
2. Why didn't Tandy furnish the required HFORMAT.COM on the
utilities Disk that came with the Hard Card.
3. It is a known fact that the Hard Card will not work with the
Old ROM in the 1000's. Why is this not documented anywhere
in Tandy's literature.
4. I called three Radio Shack Stores. None knew what I was
talking about when I asked for the Hard Drive Utilites Disk
that contained HFORMAT. Two of these stores Sold and had
1000's in stock.
5. Why didn't I buy the Zuckerboard that comes preformatted with
DOS 3.1 and costs lesss.
I hope this story helps keep someone from going through all
I did to get my Tandy Hard Card going. Actually the card appears
to be well made and performs as advertised. I believe I have got
bit, like many others, with Tandy's lack of support for its
products. A good side to this story is that I got to know my
machine a lot better and understand the inner workings of hard
drives better.
I want to give a special thanks to Ralph Allison, sysop for the
King's Bench, (303) 377-6725, and all the people who offered so
much help on his board.
Dave Charlesworth
Kenai, Alaska
CIS 70046,375
GENIE DWCHAR