Hey all, just ordered a Tecra 500CDT on ebay. The external floppy drive/enclosure was not included - only CD drive.
It's gonna take up to 6 weeks to arrive, so I'm doing some research.
A couple of questions:
Cheers!
16ShadesOfOrange wrote on 2022-01-16, 22:24:
- Does this machine support booting from CD?
- What HDD interface does the Tecra use? Could I swap out the HDD for an SD card/CF card for example?
Doom is what you want (c) MAZter
MAZter wrote on 2022-01-17, 15:56:[…]
16ShadesOfOrange wrote on 2022-01-16, 22:24:
- Does this machine support booting from CD?
- What HDD interface does the Tecra use? Could I swap out the HDD for an SD card/CF card for example?
- Every Toshiba laptop that contains CD-Rom is able to boot from it.
- I'm sure there proprietary interface, you lucky if seller left caddy with hdd adapter inside, cause this is hard to find item.
IIRC you can buy adaptors on eBay that you can use on new drives to fit the Tecra, I use a similar one on my N600C, that doesnt help if you dont have the HDD cover but you sometimes get lucky with them on eBay too.
TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 16:00:IIRC you can buy adaptors on eBay that you can use on new drives to fit the Tecra, I use a similar one on my N600C, that doesnt help if you dont have the HDD cover but you sometimes get lucky with them on eBay too.
Which one Tecra, like 8000 ? Oldie had proprietary adapters:
https://www.recycledgoods.com/toshiba-caddy-h … series-laptops/
Doom is what you want (c) MAZter
Thanks guys, pretty sure all the HDD caddy gear is included in the ebay listing, once I have more details I'll add it to my Tecra 500 wiki page:
Cool so the shipment arrived, badly damaged though in the post. But I coughed up some more cash and bought a parts machine and have frankensteined both laptops into a working one!
MAZter wrote on 2022-01-17, 15:56:
- Every Toshiba laptop that contains CD-Rom is able to boot from it.
Unfortunately, I can't find a way to boot from CD. The laptop can read the disc in WIndows just fine, and it's a bootable Win95 CD.
The BIOS only has two boot options, neither help
[FDD -> HDD] or [HDD -> FDD]
Anyways just thought I'd update the thread. Booting from CD was gonna be my break-glass tool as I don't have the FDD and setting up a PXE server is not my idea of fun.
I'm fairly certain the Tecra 500CDT can't boot from CD, you should need the floppy drive to start up and load CD-Rom drivers.
WIthout that, why not try fdisk'ing and formatting the drive in another laptop, check that it boots in the 500CDT and put Windows setup files on it?
Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-02-12, 18:48:I'm fairly certain the Tecra 500CDT can't boot from CD, you should need the floppy drive to start up and load CD-Rom drivers.
WIthout that, why not try fdisk'ing and formatting the drive in another laptop, check that it boots in the 500CDT and put Windows setup files on it?
Yep thanks, I've got a CF to IDE adapter on the way so I'll have a way to access the HDD!
16ShadesOfOrange wrote on 2022-02-13, 03:41:Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-02-12, 18:48:I'm fairly certain the Tecra 500CDT can't boot from CD, you should need the floppy drive to start up and load CD-Rom drivers.
WIthout that, why not try fdisk'ing and formatting the drive in another laptop, check that it boots in the 500CDT and put Windows setup files on it?
Yep thanks, I've got a CF to IDE adapter on the way so I'll have a way to access the HDD!
Did you get the CF Card to work, I have the floppy but it isn't working. I have been running a VM to install stuff then swapping the drive. I bought a bunch of CD-Rs but I would love to get CF working instead of the old spinning drive I have.
Hi JP, nope I didn't end up doing CF to IDE. I think I just lived with the HDD and used a CF PCMCIA adapter for transferring files on and off.
