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Tandy 1000TL Hard Drive Fault

You need MS-DOS 5. I am using the LoTech XT IDE Controller. Mine came pre-assembled for an extra fee. You will be able to use the full size of the card, but with MS DOS 5, you will have a Max Partition size of 2 GB. Also realize the CF Cards are subject to write deterioration. If this is a problem, you can install any AT Class Mechanical IDE Hard Drive you wish.
 
Zombie said:
You need MS-DOS 5. I am using the LoTech XT IDE Controller. Mine came pre-assembled for an extra fee. You will be able to use the full size of the card, but with MS DOS 5, you will have a Max Partition size of 2 GB. Also realize the CF Cards are subject to write deterioration. If this is a problem, you can install any AT Class Mechanical IDE Hard Drive you wish.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info.
I had a look on the lo-tech website and I couldn't find any option for pre-assembled components but this might give me an excuse to try a bit of electronics.

I did find a youtube video of an ebay seller demoing his prebuild IDE board:-
 
I found this video explaining how to revive old hard drives and got me thinking about trying it on the 1000TL.
They actually used the same Tandy 1000TL as mine.


I bought some multi purpose bicycle oil.
Applying the oil as described in the video still produced read errors when the drive was reinstalled.

So taking the hard drive out and applied additional oil a number of times resulted in read errors becoming less frequent.
Until finally the drive seems to be stable with it booting and able to access directories without errors.

So next step will be backing up the drive over serial cable to another computer if I'm unable to get the drive seen in a more modern machine.
 
I've also done this on some really bad condition floppy stepping motors.

As for backing it up, put it in a newer computer and copy that way? I assume of course thats an IDE drive.
 
Tibs said:
I've also done this on some really bad condition floppy stepping motors.

As for backing it up, put it in a newer computer and copy that way? I assume of course thats an IDE drive.
Click to expand...

Yes it's IDE. I didn't know if my 1993 486, 1995 Dell Pentium or my most modern IDE computer a Dell Precision 330, would see the hard drive using their builtin IDE controller.
It might be I just need to enter the drive configuration manually if the BIOS supports it.
Using modern computers has become too easy with auto-detecting of hardware and makes older working hardware obsolete.

I did try and use a IDE to USB connector but as expected it wouldn't detect it.
 
xpower said:
I did try and use a IDE to USB connector but as expected it wouldn't detect it.
Click to expand...
If you're referring to a USB Drive Enclosure most newer models require an ATA-2 (aka Fast ATA or Enhanced IDE {EIDE}) or later drive that supports LBA in order to function. Only an antique drive enclosure would support ATA.
 
I had an old Alienware computer with an IDE connector to try it.

What are the values I need for manually configuring the hard drive in the BIOS?
The settings are:-

  • Cylinder
  • Head
  • Precomp
  • Landing Zone
  • Sector

The hard drive is a Western Digital model WD9302B-X with a capacity of 20MB.
Google doesn't offer much help for this model of hard drive.
 
Stone said:
Are you sure it isn't a WD 93028 X drive? That's a 20 MB drive with the native geometry of:

782 2 27
Click to expand...

Yes looking at it again it could be an 8 bot a B. The type face makes both characters look really similar.
Thanks I will try those settings.

I guess Precomp and Landing Zone can be left as 0?
 
The Alienware which just hung on the post screen and the Dell Precision 330 Workstation didn't find the hard drive after entering in the values manually.
Probably the best solution is to use my 486 which has ISA slots and use the hard drive's controller card to access the hard drive.

I'll get the computer out of storage next weekend and give it a try.
 
xpower said:
The hard drive is a Western Digital model WD9302B-X with a capacity of 20MB.
Google doesn't offer much help for this model of hard drive.
Click to expand...

That is an 8-bit IDE-XT drive. It is not compatible with 16-bit IDE/ATA interfaces.
 
vwestlife said:
That is an 8-bit IDE-XT drive. It is not compatible with 16-bit IDE/ATA interfaces.
Click to expand...

I have two drives like this, the one I grew up with works intermittently. Since my XT-IDE Controller is out of commission until it gets repaired the Tandy is too.
 
IDE-XT ≠ XT-IDE. These 8-bit IDE-XT drives will not work with a modern "XT-IDE" card, which is really an IDE-AT (ATA) interface card designed for use in an XT system.

You need a matching interface card, such as the Western Digital XT140 or XT150:

xt140&xt150.pdf.jpg


Or you can use the "SmartDrive" interface built into a Tandy 1000RL, RLX, TL/2, or TL/3.
 
vwestlife said:
IDE-XT ≠ XT-IDE. These 8-bit IDE-XT drives will not work with a modern "XT-IDE" card, which is really an IDE-AT (ATA) interface card designed for use in an XT system.

You need a matching interface card, such as the Western Digital XT140 or XT150:

xt140&xt150.pdf.jpg


Or you can use the "SmartDrive" interface built into a Tandy 1000RL, RLX, TL/2, or TL/3.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. I thought it would be a long shot for it to work with a newer IDE controller.

I'll try installing the drive with its controller card into a ISA 486 machine.
I'm guessing this will work as a secondary controller to the on-board IDE one?
 
I still wonder how easy/hard it would be to make a little board that would adapt the XTA interface of these older systems (20 and 40MB drives) to a small solid state flash drive, so that could use the build in controllers instead of having to put an ISA card add-on in place... usage could also work for laptops like the Tandy 1100FD and others that had 20/40MB XTA drives.
 
acadiel said:
I still wonder how easy/hard it would be to make a little board that would adapt the XTA interface of these older systems (20 and 40MB drives) to a small solid state flash drive, so that could use the build in controllers instead of having to put an ISA card add-on in place... usage could also work for laptops like the Tandy 1100FD and others that had 20/40MB XTA drives.
Click to expand...

I know at one time eeguru said he would be supporting XTA with NetPi-IDE. I really hope it comes to fruition so that we can quit burning the 1 ISA slot in RL/RLX's with an XT-IDE. Also the Virtual Network Interface and DOS Redirector features will be huge bonus.
 
Update with getting the hard drive to work in another computer.
I installed in in a 1993 486 system with ISA slots only.
A slight problem was that the attached hard drive bracket is hitting against the 16bit portion of the ISA slot.

When the booting the computer the memory test completes and a single beep is sounded then the keyboard locks up and does not progress from there.

It was worth a try to get it working in a newer computer.
So the next option is to copy the data over to a new hard drive via serial cable.
 
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