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Compaq Portable Diskette Error?

A

Anonymoose

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2024
Messages
62
Heyo,
Booting my Compaq Portable gives me an error that states, “Diskette Error, replace and strike any key when ready”. I’ve tested both floppy drives in a 486 (with ImageDisk) and they both work fine. What’s odd to me is that the error still appears on the Compaq even after I’ve taken both drives and the floppy card out, so I assume it’s a fault with the motherboard? I’ve also tried cleaning the contacts, reseating the cards, cleaning the cable, and changing the SW1 switches. Given I know nothing about the motherboard, I’d love to hear some suggestions. Thanks!
 
Usually, a message* like that means the disk is not a bootable disk. What disk is it?

* Technically, the computer actually does boot but has only code to display that message instead of continuing in a more useful fashion.
 
hmm, the disk was Disk 1 of Compaq MSDOS 3.31, and it worked when I read it in the 486. It seems to not read any disks in the Portable
 
Just to confirm, did the 486 boot off that disk?
Just tested PCJS's emulation of the Compaq Portable and that is the message that shows up when there is no disk inserted so the Compaq can't read your disk. I suspect that the disk is formatted as high density (1.2MB) which the double density controller can't handle. You would need to create a bootable 360KB disk.

And I learned that the Compaq BIOS was more advanced than I thought.
 
No I haven’t tried booting it, and the 360kb suggestion I haven’t tried yet. Could I format a 1.2mb 5 inch to 360kb? Those are all I have it seems
 
A high density disk will often work when formatted as double density, at least for a little while.
If you used a disk image to create the DOS disk, look for a 360K DOS image and use that.

Otherwise, it becomes more complex and looking at the manual to figure out the correct switches for 360K formats is necessary. That changed between versions and I don't remember the syntax.
 
Welp, the original Compaq DOS 1.12 disk did work, and it gave me the date and time. Apparently I’ve also been putting in the disks the wrong way, so this has been a learning lesson for me…
 
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