DeChief
Member
Hey there, that looks like standard IDE to me.
When you turn on the computer you should be able to access the setup page by hitting one of the function keys - it will probably be F1. On that screen, you will see an option that says something like "hard disk type". Navigate to that using the arrow keys and see what options you are able to select. That should tell you which hard drive sizes and parameters the BIOS supports, then you can try to find a model that matches that.
Completely unrelated to your question, but:
This Toshiba J3100 was one of my first vintage IBM PC compatible machines, and I've learned a hell of a lot about them since making this thread - thanks for bumping it! I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, but I did manage to get the MicroSolutions BackPack HD working without running out of RAM on the J3100 GT041, and eventually went one step further by repairing the original internal hard drive. I think I might have been using a DOS 3.30 image that was loaded with extra drivers and TSRs that took up too much memory, and I didn't know anything about config.sys and such back then.
When I got the machine I simply didn't have the skill or knowledge to even know where to start, let alone successfully repair, a hard drive. But when I moved back to Australia in early 2017, the Toshiba GT041 developed some vertical lines in the screen and I decided to finally crack it open and see what I could do. I replaced the 5 or so capacitors on the motherboard which got rid of the screen lines, re-capped and cleaned the floppy drive, and finally re-capped the hard drive. It was only about an hour of work and it booted up first try, with the original installation of Toshiba J-DOS 3.10 still functional! Scandisk revealed 0 bad sectors, I was over the moon. I also managed to pick up a TSR called Magic Run which allows you to run regular MS-DOS programs under Toshiba J-DOS, since they aren't directly compatible. I've made a disk image of it if anybody wants it.
It's been working ever since and continues to be my favourite 286 DOS gaming machine. If I didn't have to break out a 240V to 100V step-down transformer to use it I would fire it up a whole lot more often... maybe I should look into replacing the PSU with a modern 240V equivalent.
When you turn on the computer you should be able to access the setup page by hitting one of the function keys - it will probably be F1. On that screen, you will see an option that says something like "hard disk type". Navigate to that using the arrow keys and see what options you are able to select. That should tell you which hard drive sizes and parameters the BIOS supports, then you can try to find a model that matches that.
Completely unrelated to your question, but:
This Toshiba J3100 was one of my first vintage IBM PC compatible machines, and I've learned a hell of a lot about them since making this thread - thanks for bumping it! I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, but I did manage to get the MicroSolutions BackPack HD working without running out of RAM on the J3100 GT041, and eventually went one step further by repairing the original internal hard drive. I think I might have been using a DOS 3.30 image that was loaded with extra drivers and TSRs that took up too much memory, and I didn't know anything about config.sys and such back then.
When I got the machine I simply didn't have the skill or knowledge to even know where to start, let alone successfully repair, a hard drive. But when I moved back to Australia in early 2017, the Toshiba GT041 developed some vertical lines in the screen and I decided to finally crack it open and see what I could do. I replaced the 5 or so capacitors on the motherboard which got rid of the screen lines, re-capped and cleaned the floppy drive, and finally re-capped the hard drive. It was only about an hour of work and it booted up first try, with the original installation of Toshiba J-DOS 3.10 still functional! Scandisk revealed 0 bad sectors, I was over the moon. I also managed to pick up a TSR called Magic Run which allows you to run regular MS-DOS programs under Toshiba J-DOS, since they aren't directly compatible. I've made a disk image of it if anybody wants it.
It's been working ever since and continues to be my favourite 286 DOS gaming machine. If I didn't have to break out a 240V to 100V step-down transformer to use it I would fire it up a whole lot more often... maybe I should look into replacing the PSU with a modern 240V equivalent.
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