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Tandy 1000 SX Software Transfer

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spartan2381

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Dec 1, 2021
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I just recently acquired a 1000SX with a Gotek floppy emulator and HD installed. It also came with the original 5 1/2 floppy drive but is not installed. My questions center around how to get software onto the computer.

1. What is a good repository for software?
2. How is downloaded software converted/ transferred for use with the Gotek?
3. Can physical floppy software be converted for use with the Gotek?
4. Do I need to buy a 360K 5 1/2 floppy drive for my Windows 98SE to perform task 3?
 
If it came with a gotek all you have to do is plug a thumb drive into your PC and put any 360k floppy disk images onto it, then plug it into your gotek, power up the Tandy and it will boot off whichever image file is selected on the gotek. You can put a blank floppy into your 5 1/4 drive assuming it's already set up as a drive b: and copy stuff from the gotek to the floppy, etc.
 
killr0y said:
If it came with a gotek all you have to do is plug a thumb drive into your PC and put any 360k floppy disk images onto it, then plug it into your gotek, power up the Tandy and it will boot off whichever image file is selected on the gotek. You can put a blank floppy into your 5 1/4 drive assuming it's already set up as a drive b: and copy stuff from the gotek to the floppy, etc.
Click to expand...
It looks like only .img files will work with the Gotek and no upgrade has been done to flash the Hxc or FlashFloppy.

  1. Is there a way to convert .DSK files to work with Gotek?
  2. What type of floppy cable is needed for the Teac FD-55BV-75-U (orginal drive)?
 
The Good Old Days and the Total DOS Collection are the best publicly available software repositories of floppy images, Winworldpc has some too.

If your Gotek is not upgraded to FlashFloppy or HxC you won't be able to do much with it. I believe the stock Gotek firmware only allows one image at a time and I am unsure if it even supports 360K images. Typically these devices only support one format, 1.44MB, 1.2MB or 720KB, from the factory. FlashFloppy and HxC support multiple images at once and even some copy protected formats.

The Tandy 1000SX requires a "straight through" floppy cable with no twist. You'll have to modify an existing cable or roll your own. A vice is best for attaching the connector to the ribbon cable.

If you wish to convert floppy disks to disk images, you will need the drive and a program which can convert them, such as dsk2img. If the program uses a disk-based copy protection scheme, then you will need special hardware like Kryoflux, Super Card Pro or an Option Board.
 
I would highly recommend converting the Gotek to FlashFloppy. The easy way just requires an oddball USB A-A connector cable and a couple temporary bits of wire, there are instructions and how-to videos linked on the Wiki. The OLED display upgrade is also a must-have, you can buy the screen for a couple bucks on Amazon or eBay.

For a floppy drive cable, I don't know what you have in there now, but if it's missing the card-edge connectors entirely You can still buy pre-assembled "universal" cables with both types. As noted, the Tandy's need a non-twisted cable; if you're careful you can gently loosen the clips on the IDC connectors on an existing cable (do this for the ones past the twist), untwist the cable, and clamp the connectors back on.
 
@Great Hierophant
Just checked out Good Old Days and have used Winworld in the pas for operating system. Total DOS collection seems to be a private torrent so have to figure out how to access to that collection. I did end up flashing the Gotek with HxC after some fighting with the USB-TTL adapter. I'm in the process of running SpinRite 3.1 on the ST-225, curios to see what type of shape its in.

I ordered a cable from ebay that has the card edge connector that will fir the 5 1/2 floopy that came in the Tandy. This was just eaiser than me hacing to buy the cables and tools to make my own.

I'll give dsk2img a look at. I have used winimage in the past. HxC seems to have a nice application to make things eaiser and will be playing around with that as well.


@Eudimorphodon
I was turn between FlashFloppy and HxC but when looking on YouTube I was finding a many videos on how the process works so decide to go that route for $10. I also did the OLED upgrade which makes looking thorugh images super easy and quick, definitely a musy have upgrade for a few dollars. I also changed out the power supply fan since it was very loud, put the Noctua NF-A8 FLX fan.

I may pickup the universal cable to have for my box os spare parts, never know when it may come in handy.
 
While the most current version of Total DOS Collection may not be publicly available, it is quite likely that there are some older versions Archived on the Internet.
 
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