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XT-IDE BIOS - forcing boot from CF possible?

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First post, by Kubik

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Folks, do you happen to know how to force XT-IDE BIOS to boot from CF even when a local hard drive is attached?

I am reviving another PS/2 Model 30 / 8086. Floppy drive is dead, so I don't have the luxury of booting from it. I have low formatted the hard drive in the system, and now I can't boot from it. My thought was using XT-CF-Lite card, boot from CF and format the hard drive. Unfortunately, the machine always tries to boot from hard drive, and because the drive isn't formatted, the boot process fails to BASIC.

The XT-CF-Lite card works fine when I disconnect the hard drive. Even with hard drive connected, I can see XT-IDE BIOS detecting my CF card, but then, system attempts booting from hard drive instead.

Is there any trick?

Reply 1 of 2, by jesolo

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Yes, the XT-IDE BIOS card can co-exist with an MFM drive (refer: http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/xtide/rev_1/X … -%20general.htm - the section "Coexistence with MFM hard drive controller card")
You can change the options in the XT-IDE BIOS to give you a selection upon boot up (refer the section in the above link called: "Reprogramming the 28C64 EEPROM")

I'm not an expert with the XT-IDE BIOS but, also make sure your XT-IDE card doesn't share the same address as that of your MFM hard drive controller card.
Other users on the forum might be able to provide more insight, as I haven't played around much with the XT-IDE BIOS yet.

PS: How did you manage to low level format the hard drive in the first place if your floppy drive isn't working? Whatever method you used to accomplish that, you should be able to apply again if you want to re-format the drive.

Reply 2 of 2, by Kubik

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OK, thanks, I'll look into that document.

I was able to boot off the hard drive before it was reformatted. I expected the BIOS will skip the drive as it cannot boot from it and continue with other boot devices, but it obviously doesn't work that way 😀

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