Theoretically it's possible to add Card and Socket drivers + PCMCIA ATA driver to the config.sys on a bootable floppy. And it will work.
TI came with Phoenix CardManager software as IFAIK. The tricky part is that you will have to add the strings manually as the installer will hardly fit on a diskette.
Here is the version 4 Phoenix CardManager of the Re: DOS PCMCIA Card and socket services software?
I'll see if I have it installed somewhere with all config.sys content.

EDIT: you could also use point enablers like unata or ataenab from https://tssc.de/ but they are not free, just 2 week test period.

EDIT2: I could finally find an earlier version (3.01) of Phoenix Card Manager. It has DOS installer, unlike version 4 that has DOS support but only windows installer.

I have had positive experience booting pentium laptop from a floppy drive and using pcmcia card as a hard drive with ataenab

I've done the same with my NEC Versa V50 which doesn't have the caddy (and won't, costs too much) - see this post for a summary of my experience with it: Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Here's the boot floppy I used, which loads dos 6.22 with Cardsoft / Cardwizard, to initalise the PCMCIA ATA Flash card I use as a hard drive:
"A Dos 6.22 boot disk configured with PCMCIA for this NEC versa V/50 laptop. This allows the laptop to use the lower PCMCIA slot as the C drive and run programs"
Fits into 1.2MB with the PCMCIA drivers, himem, edit, memmaker and CD-ROM drivers too. This is actually a pretty hacked up install of cardsoft that I've made from a couple of versions to make the boottime far more tolerable. Mostly it's Cardsoft 3.1 but it uses the CARDID.EXE from 3.0 because it loads faster from a floppy.
In my notes I mentioned which slot the ATA Flash card goes into because the ATADRV driver allocates the first available drive numbers to slot 1 then slot 2. On this the lower slot is slot1 so it's seen as the C drive.

It's currently using Cirrus Logic socket services (sscirrus). You should be able to use it by changing the socket services for either the intel 365 compatible one, or the TI socket services, I've attached a collection of the socket services drivers that should work. If it doesn't work, boot up from the floppy and run cardwiz\config.exe and go into the bit to scan and allocate resources. You might also need to change the memory exception area (c000-cfff) but it should work on most laptops I think.

For command line switches and stuff - generally you don't want to get to that level past specifying the number of slots, check out this document "cardsoft_technical_guide_SWM640020018A.pdf"

Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-09-05, 17:31:

I've done the same with my NEC Versa V50 which doesn't have the caddy (and won't, costs too much) - see this post for a summary […]
Show full quote

I've done the same with my NEC Versa V50 which doesn't have the caddy (and won't, costs too much) - see this post for a summary of my experience with it: Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Here's the boot floppy I used, which loads dos 6.22 with Cardsoft / Cardwizard, to initalise the PCMCIA ATA Flash card I use as a hard drive:
"A Dos 6.22 boot disk configured with PCMCIA for this NEC versa V/50 laptop. This allows the laptop to use the lower PCMCIA slot as the C drive and run programs"
Fits into 1.2MB with the PCMCIA drivers, himem, edit, memmaker and CD-ROM drivers too. This is actually a pretty hacked up install of cardsoft that I've made from a couple of versions to make the boottime far more tolerable. Mostly it's Cardsoft 3.1 but it uses the CARDID.EXE from 3.0 because it loads faster from a floppy.
In my notes I mentioned which slot the ATA Flash card goes into because the ATADRV driver allocates the first available drive numbers to slot 1 then slot 2. On this the lower slot is slot1 so it's seen as the C drive.

It's currently using Cirrus Logic socket services (sscirrus). You should be able to use it by changing the socket services for either the intel 365 compatible one, or the TI socket services, I've attached a collection of the socket services drivers that should work. If it doesn't work, boot up from the floppy and run cardwiz\config.exe and go into the bit to scan and allocate resources. You might also need to change the memory exception area (c000-cfff) but it should work on most laptops I think.

For command line switches and stuff - generally you don't want to get to that level past specifying the number of slots, check out this document "cardsoft_technical_guide_SWM640020018A.pdf"

Thanks for your posts. I didn't get notifications from this thread so didn't know so much useful stuff was here. Thanks so much!

Your bootable floppy is booting my laptop, and from the attached it looks like I have the same, and it's working!!!!!! I can't thank you enough!!!!!

Really really happy. Thanks

Hi All

I'm running absolutely fine on a 256mb CF Card. I've found my 1GB card I got second hand recently, it works fine in Windows 10, but won't read on my 486 DOS 6.22 laptop. Do I need to configure it first?

FDISK says unable to find fixed disk and IDEINFO can't see it.

Ta

What brand is the not working CF? I have one Cisco 512Mb card that's not seen in old laptops, but works in Win10.

This is it. Western Digital. I had an old external USB drive which I recycled with an IDE to CF Adapter.

In the 486 laptop , I'm using a PCMCIA adapter, not the adapter shown.

Ta

I have a similar card that works fine on old laptops. However your says SiliconDrive II, maybe that's the reason.
Anyways, I'd try to make a partition with pcmfdisk.exe tool that comes with PhoenixCard Manager (note it requires all Phoenix drivers loaded). It's usually my last resort if it comes to making working/bootable CF cards.

Bondi wrote on 2023-09-21, 11:06:

I have a similar card that works fine on old laptops. However your says SiliconDrive II, maybe that's the reason.
Anyways, I'd try to make a partition with pcmfdisk.exe tool that comes with PhoenixCard Manager (note it requires all Phoenix drivers loaded). It's usually my last resort if it comes to making working/bootable CF cards.
IMG_1110.jpg

The Texas Travelmate Manual suggests I have PhoenixCard but I'm running Cirrus successfully at the moment. Maybe I should try an older card as you suggest.

Thanks

Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-09-05, 17:31:

I've done the same with my NEC Versa V50 which doesn't have the caddy (and won't, costs too much) - see this post for a summary […]
Show full quote

I've done the same with my NEC Versa V50 which doesn't have the caddy (and won't, costs too much) - see this post for a summary of my experience with it: Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Here's the boot floppy I used, which loads dos 6.22 with Cardsoft / Cardwizard, to initalise the PCMCIA ATA Flash card I use as a hard drive:
"A Dos 6.22 boot disk configured with PCMCIA for this NEC versa V/50 laptop. This allows the laptop to use the lower PCMCIA slot as the C drive and run programs"
Fits into 1.2MB with the PCMCIA drivers, himem, edit, memmaker and CD-ROM drivers too. This is actually a pretty hacked up install of cardsoft that I've made from a couple of versions to make the boottime far more tolerable. Mostly it's Cardsoft 3.1 but it uses the CARDID.EXE from 3.0 because it loads faster from a floppy.
In my notes I mentioned which slot the ATA Flash card goes into because the ATADRV driver allocates the first available drive numbers to slot 1 then slot 2. On this the lower slot is slot1 so it's seen as the C drive.

It's currently using Cirrus Logic socket services (sscirrus). You should be able to use it by changing the socket services for either the intel 365 compatible one, or the TI socket services, I've attached a collection of the socket services drivers that should work. If it doesn't work, boot up from the floppy and run cardwiz\config.exe and go into the bit to scan and allocate resources. You might also need to change the memory exception area (c000-cfff) but it should work on most laptops I think.

For command line switches and stuff - generally you don't want to get to that level past specifying the number of slots, check out this document "cardsoft_technical_guide_SWM640020018A.pdf"

Hi
Thank you again! This is perfect. Once loaded I have a c: which I am accessing fine and also a d: is now visible, but brings an error. Does this mean if I buy another PCMCIA adapter the other would be D: or is the boot up setting something specific on your own machine as D: ? Only asking out of interest and curiosity.

Cheers
Louis

Update, I read the manual! Ha

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rc … QJCL_ztu_Cd8aQg