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Tandy 1000 TL/2 and XT-IDE - Error 01h when attempting to boot from WDAC2850 drive

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EddieDX4

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Aug 15, 2006
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Puget Sound region, WA, USA
I am attempting to install an 813mb WD drive in my TL/2, by use of an XT-IDE. The controller detects the drive fine (lists it in the bootm options), but whenever it attempts to boot it fails with an Error 01h (the controller reports this error).

I have already configured my TL/2 to boot from DISK and MSDOS (setuptl2.com from the original MS-DOS/GW-BASIC boot disk).

If I boot from floppy (MS-DOS 5.0) and try to go into FDISK, it errors out as well (can't remember the exact message, but it was a generic one liner "Error reading drive" or something along those lines)...

This is a drive I was using on a 386 machine, and it has DOS 6.0 in it. It works fine on that machine.

What am I doing wrong? The XT-IDE has all default settings (and, as far as I can tell, the default memory addresses do not conflict with the TL/2's built in controller, etc...)

I've tried moving the HD IRQ jumper on the TL/2 from IRQ5 to IRQ2, just in case, but I get the same result.

I searched the XT-IDE tech support thread but the darn thing is too many pages and I eventually became exhausted (we need a dedicated forum for XT-IDE support...a single thread is ridiculous).

Anyone else using an XT-IDE on a TL series 1000?
 
Additional information:

I tried a different known working drive, a WDAC21000 (1.0 GB) and received the same failure. Also, the LED on the XT-IDE card remains lit after boot (it is off, but even if I select boot from floppy it comes on when DOS begins to load, and remains on).

The exact error by FDISK reads "Error reading fixed disk."
 
Last edited:
Even more info:

I updated from BIOS v1.1.0 to v1.1.4 (latest), and although this has not helped (same behavior), the error code is now FFh instead of 01h.

I tried multiple configurations, even configuring IRQ2 on the XT-IDE (and BIOS config)... I also switched to an "80 pin" IDE cable, snipping the 11th pin on the XT-IDE connector. Nothing, same deal.

Is this thing compatiable with the TL/2 at all?
 
Success! I've been fiddling with this thing for hours... What seems to have fixed it is disabling Late initialization... My guess is that the built-in HD controller on the TL/2 was loading before XT-IDE and causing the conflict.
 
EddieDX4 said:
Success! I've been fiddling with this thing for hours... What seems to have fixed it is disabling Late initialization... My guess is that the built-in HD controller on the TL/2 was loading before XT-IDE and causing the conflict.
Click to expand...

Okay, that and also using an IRQ... The machine seems to freeze on occasion, though... I am not convinced XT-IDE and TL/2's play nice together. :(
 
Whew, okay... So, TL/2 requirements:

Late initalization: NO
IRQ: NO (this sort of worked and didn't work, but now it's working without...)
User defined CHS: Yes (and specify exact info... I did 2100/16/63 on WD 21000 drive and that worked, also 1654/16/63 on WD 2850 and that worked, too)

If you don't specify CHS info manually, drive is detected but it stops working the moment that you try to access it.
 
I cannot say for your application, but in working with the GIDE for my model 4p I found that:
the 'interrogated' CHS specs on some drives are NOT necessarily the same as the 'translated/operating' CHS values...

The conner cp2024 is a perfect example:
20mb 2.5"
interrogated CHS = 652/2/34 ('mechanical' values)
'working' CHS = 615/4/17
I found this to be true EVEN on the modern system... IF IT IS NOT reported as 615/4/17 it WILL NOT WORK...
(I THINK if I had the capability of a TRUE low-level format it could be changed but I dont 'feel' like going that far...)

I suspect this is true for MANY drives and that may be why yours did not work as expected...
 
The BIOS has moved on a great deal in the four years since this thread was posted - which Tandy 1000 are you enquiring about?
 
Do I need to change something on the motherboard ?
Do I need to deactivate the onboard XT-IDE Controller of the Tandy ?
I already own an 8Bit IDE Controller (XT-IDE) but I did not have tested it, it came with a special Bios in order to work with a XT-Class machine.
 
There are several controllers that are described as XT-IDE - which controller do you have?
 
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