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My Tandy 1000 RL HDD died. :( Any IDE -> USB adaptors like Gotek, but for IDE instead of floppy?

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First post, by Mr_Blastman

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I'm sad. I love my Tandy 1000 RL and TX. Alas, my vintage Seagate 20 mb hdd is dead. RIP. She won't spin up. I hear the heads moving, but nothing spins. Gotek makes a very nice USB Floppy emulation device, so I can plug a usb stick in. But those are slow. And tedious. I want vintage 80s HDD speed. Are there any such adapters, similar in concept, where I can use a USB stick as a HDD on a x86 machine which plugs into the IDE interface?

I ask because on the Amiga scene there is such a device for SD cards. I wouldn't mind if this were SD on PC, either.

edit:

I can't edit the title, and realized I spelled adaptors wrong. This bothers me. Oh well. 🙁 Should be spelled adapters.

Reply 1 of 6, by Jo22

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Hi! The Tandy 1000 RL has 8-Bit IDE?
If so, it might be possible to use Compact Flash cards or IBM Microdrives, maybe.
The obvious choice, XT-IDE has its trouble with Tandy 1000 line, or so I heard.
Speaking under correction, though. I'm just a layman here. 🙁

Edit: Oh, there's another, almost forgotten alternative.
The DiskOnChip modules (DOC2000) can be used on 8-Bit bus.
Either via PC bus card or on an ethernet card. They appear like EPROMs.
They can be flashed with an plain 8088 firmware, even.
Here's a site with pictures: http://www.daupara.de/surfstation/

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 2 of 6, by Horun

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Yes the controller and drive are XT-IDE, not compatible with AT-IDE devices. The onboard controller has to have a XT-IDE drive like st325x, stst351a/x or one of the wd "-x" drives like WD-93024-X.
With only one 8bit expansion you might be able to use a true 8bit AT-IDE adapter like a Low tech 8bit IDE (Lo-tech XT-IDE XT ISA) adapter and then a CF card + adapter....

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 3 of 6, by Mr_Blastman

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Horun wrote on 2024-10-17, 02:09:

Yes the controller and drive are XT-IDE, not compatible with AT-IDE devices. The onboard controller has to have a XT-IDE drive like st325x, stst351a/x or one of the wd "-x" drives like WD-93024-X.
With only one 8bit expansion you might be able to use a true 8bit AT-IDE adapter like a Low tech 8bit IDE (Lo-tech XT-IDE XT ISA) adapter and then a CF card + adapter....

Ahh, yes, thank you both for the insight. Seems something such as this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285964268192?_skw=sd … ABk9SR6KfoYzTZA

Might work?

Now I must check if my old multi-Flash card reader will accept Compact Flash, that I bought years ago, to copy from the main pc...

Reply 4 of 6, by Jo22

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Hi, I'm not sure. I'm not a Tandy 1000 owner, but I vaguely remember something about compatibility issues with the XT-IDE card.
It maybe needs a special firmware for Tandy computers or something along these lines.
Maybe a Tandy 1000 owner on the forums can help here?

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 5 of 6, by stamasd

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I would recommend a SD card-to-IDE adapter. They can be had for a few bucks on amazon or ebay, and then you can use a regular SD card plugged into the IDE bus.

I/O, I/O,
It's off to disk I go,
With a bit and a byte
And a read and a write,
I/O, I/O

Reply 6 of 6, by Shponglefan

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I've used a BlueTech Lava Systems XT-IDE CF card with my Tandy 1000 TL: Tandy 1000 TL Build / Restoration

I've also used a Lo-tech XTIDE card in my Tandy TL/2. I did have to reflash the BIOS (I vaguely recall memory location of the BIOS extension being an issue?).

The attachment Lo-tech CF adapter successful flash.jpg is no longer available
The attachment Tandy TL2 XTIDE success.jpg is no longer available

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