💾 Archived View for uscoffings.net › retro-computing › systems › Tandy › oldskool › 1ka3-5.txt captured on 2023-07-10 at 15:06:26.
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Fm: Bernie Skoch 75376,12
A friend of mine has a Tandy 1000A, and he would like to add a secind drive
(he has one 5.25" floppy now). I was under the impression that the 1000 came
with a floppy controller that would handle a second drive, and that all he'd
need to do is buy any industry standard 5.25" floppy, plug it in (I assume the
power connector and drive logic/data bus are standard), and use it. But HE
says that someone told him the 1000A won't accept a standard drive, and
instead needs a special Tandy 1000 "compatible" drive (??). Does anyone know
anything about that. Also, does anyone know if he can buy a plain-Jane 3.5"
drive and use it instead. Will the MSDOS provided with the 1000A work with a
3.5" drive? Will the controller that comes with it? Thanks Bernie Skoch
Fm: Wayne Day 76703,376
Bernie... in a word.. SORTA-BALDERDASH! <grin>
You DO have to be careful about getting a drive with the connector on the
right side of the drive (as you look at it from the front) and with the pin
connections the same, unless you wanna have to make up another cable.
So, what your friend heard can be kinda taken as truth.
The other side of the story is that, with the proper cable that may be already
in the machine or might require you to supply a new one with some more slack
in it, any IBM-standard 5.25" mini-floppy that's 40 track double sided SHOULD
work.
The exact replacement for the drive is a TEAC 54-B, by the way.. a TEAC 53-B
will also work, while a 55-B will require you to split the cable (actually cut
between the individual wires in the ribbon cable to be able to flex it a bit)
in order to reach the connector.
On the 3.5" drive... if you are using MS-DOS 3.2 or higher, a 3.5" drive is
supported with no additional drivers. On MS-DOS 3.1 or below, you have to add
external (to DOS, anyway) drivers that tell DOS that you've got a special
piece of hardware attached.
(NOTE: Under MS-DOS 3.2, to notify DOS that your B: drive is a 3.5" drive
capable of 80 track double sided operation, you would insert the
following command in your CONFIG.SYS file:
DRIVPARM=/D:1
That will allow you to format all 80 tracks, double sided, with your 3.5"
diskette. If you are only interested in reading other folks' 3.5" diskettes,
and you have MS-DOS 3.2, you do not need to insert that DRIVPARM statement
in your CONFIG.SYS file.)
A 'plain-jane' drive, then, will work if you've got DOS 3.2 or higher.
Wayne
Fm: Bernie Skoch 75376,12
Wayne, Well, you certainly cleared THAT up!! I sure appreciate it, as I know
my boss will. What you say makes a lot of sense, too. Cheers Bernie
Fm: Michael Hardy 73100,47
Is it possiable to do something to a 1000A so I can run a 3.5" drive? As of
now I have 640K, Ext. 10M Hard-drive, and two 5.25" drives.
Mike
Fm: Wayne Day 76703,376
Sure is possible, Michael -- I've got one on this particular T1K-A right now,
myself.
There are both hardware and software considerations.... on the hardware
side, you can take almost any 720K 3.5" drive and, with a mounting kit if it's
not already installed in one, mount the thing in the same space that would be
taken up by a 5.25" drive.
The drives use the same electrical interface that the 5.25" drives do, so
there's not too much hassle on that front. The drive I got (an Astro) had the
connector on the back of the drive mounted in the same relative position as
the 5.25" drive in the computer, so I didn't have to worry about twisting the
connector to get the pins aligned correctly. That MAY be a consideration with
some other drive, though.
On the software side, you can do it one of two ways...
(a) If you are using DOS 3.2 or higher, you need no special software because
support for the 3.5" drives is written into DOS.
(b) if you are using DOS 3.1 or below, you'll need to use a device driver
that tells MS-DOS you have something special hung onto the machine. You'll
also wind up using a separate FORMAT command for the drive (in the case of the
ASTRO).
You can purchase a complete setup from someone like Astro or Manzana, complete
with device drivers, or you can piece together things yourself. The above
info should get you pretty well started if you decide to do it yourself.
Wayne
Fm: Michael Hardy 73100,47
Thank-you for your reply. Is there a reason that a 3.5 drive from Tandy
will or will not work? While waiting for an answer to my question I went to a
Tandy Computer Center and was told by the "experts" that their 3.5 will not
work on a 1000A. Where would I contact the two companies that you mentioned?
I'm still green about this computer stuff!
Fm: Wayne Day 76703,376
I don't see any reason why Tandy's drive wouldn't work except for the fact
that their 3.5" drive is mounted in an external box (I assume there's a power
supply in it, too) and may have some weird cable configuration... I've not
seen one of their drives, so I can't really say. In this case, I'd probably
take the word of the folks who might know.
Astro Systems
807 Aldo Ave #106
Santa Clara, CA 95054
(408) 727-5599
Manzana MicroSystems
7334 Hollister Ave
Goleta, CA 93118
(805) 968-1387
Fm: Leland Wong 76257,1705
Wayne, Is the Toshiba 720K 3.5" the same (compatible) with the Astro or
Manzana drives? Ihave a laptop and the Toshiba 5.25" optional drive is too
much $$. I'm not too familiar with modifying ribbon cables, etc. and would
prefer a "plug in and go" disk drive. That's why I bought the second 360K
drive from an RSCC ('tho I did install it myself). Thanks.
Fm: Wayne Day 76703,376
Leland,
I believe the Toshiba 3.5" 720K drive is compatible -- the only thing you've
got to watch out for in those things is that you don't get a 1.4 meg drive.
What you probably want to find is one of the kits that includes not only the
mounting frame for the 3.5" drive (so that it takes up the same physical space
as a 5.25" drive so it can be mounted where a 5.25 incher would have been) but
that it also includes an adapter cable that takes the plug arrangement on the
back of the 3.5" drive and converts it to a plug that will accept the standard
5.25" floppy cable connector.
Then, all you have to do is slide the old 5.25" out, and slide the 3.5" incher
in (and then work on the software side - grin>
Wayne