(not unexpected) Lo-tech XT-CF lite V2 installation issues. Help!

[dhau]

Original poster has a bit of a chicken and egg problem. No floppy to boot from, so no way to fix xt-cf. And no boot from xt-cf, so no easy way to make a 5.25" boot floppy.

An interesting project would be a BIOS that has code to prompt for a floppy, and then write very basic bootable image with io.sys, command.com, fdisk.com and format.com. All compressed in ROM, so it would take less space. Not sure this would fit into 8K, but may be it would in 32K.

 

[chris2fett]

The Model D will support a 720k 3.5" drive. Do you have any 3.5" drives? Even a 1.44M? (Most 1.44 drives will also behave as a 720K). You could temporarily pull it an attach it to the Model D as Drive A: and boot into DOS from there. (I checked my logs and the Model D will also support the 1.44 Drive and diskettes. So no need to use 720k format).

Or use Laplink to connect to your modern computer? I have done this with Windows 7 and XP.

Borrow a DOS diskette, formatted as 720K or 1.44M, from a friend? Have them put the needed files on the diskette for you?

Seaken

Thanks for all of these suggestions! I could purchase a 720K 3.5 drive and attach, but looks like I will have to use the DRIVPARM command to get it to work ion the model D.

Fortunately, TexElec was gracious enough to accept my Lo-tech XT-CF lite card for return.

I'm trying the Blue Lava XT-IDE adapter next, should arrive any day. Has physical jumper switches and an included/formatted 64MB flash card, so we will see.

But it ALSO uses 300h to address the card (the same as the Leading Edge Model D real time clock).

And yes, it IS a chicken and egg scenario.

If I need to configure the BIOS with this new Blue Lava card to change settings, I think I will reach out the the forum users here: probably the EASIEST way for me to get the XT-IDE bios config file on my system is just to pay someone here to copy it onto a 360K floppy for me and mail it to me (I will GLADLY pay for the service! I can even mail them a couple of blank 360K disks if needed). Should I put a request in the marketplace?

 

[modem7]

Thanks for all of these suggestions! I could purchase a 720K 3.5 drive and attach, but looks like I will have to use the DRIVPARM command to get it to work ion the model D.

I expect the same as that for the IBM PC (IBM 5150). On my IBM PC, if I substitute a 1.44M drive in place of the 360K one at A:, I discover that I can boot from a 720K sized diskette. No DRIVPARM, or other software, required. A temporary thing. Details at [here].

I'm trying the Blue Lava XT-IDE adapter next, should arrive any day. Has physical jumper switches and an included/formatted 64MB flash card, so we will see.

I am glad that you are also getting a known-compatible CF card.

But it ALSO uses 300h to address the card (the same as the Leading Edge Model D real time clock).

Presumably, as an experiment, I expect that the first thing that you will be doing is disabling the motherboard's RTC and then verifying that the XUB is displaying the model information of the CF card.

If I need to configure the BIOS with this new Blue Lava card to change settings, I think I will reach out the the forum users here: probably the EASIEST way for me to get the XT-IDE bios config file on my system is just to pay someone here to copy it onto a 360K floppy for me and mail it to me (I will GLADLY pay for the service! I can even mail them a couple of blank 360K disks if needed). Should I put a request in the marketplace?

Ideally, yes.

Perhaps two floppies (main + backup).

Because all you want to do is reconfigure the existing XTIDE Universal BIOS (XUB) on the Blue Lava XT-IDE card, the XTIDECFG.COM file on the floppy needs to match the version of XUB on the Blue Lava XT-IDE card.

 

[seaken]

In my experience, the Model D boots from the 720k disk with no issues. Sometimes a diskette written with another drive has trouble reading. If you do not have another PC to use than that could be an issue. If you had another PC I would just put the drive on the other PC first and format and transfer the system first on that other machine. Then move the drive and formatted diskettes back to the Model D. But usually there is no problem booting from a DOS diskette in a 720/1.44 drive on the Model D. You could put the 360K drive as drive B to make copying files easier.

Seaken

 

[FreddyV]

To reprogram the XTIDE BIOS, to change the default port, you can use another computer.

If somebody is blocked with an XTIDE and has no 2nd PC, no floppy drive and no EPROM programmer....

An EPROM programmer is also really cheap.