Very glad I documented what I went through with my CF on the Tandy 1000SX seeing as so many have responded and used this thread.

Dr Xray,

I'm assuming you tried the steps in the original post, specifically

"DISKPART
LIST DISK, found # for my CF.
SELECT DISK #
CLEAN"

in the CMD prompt of Windows 7 to prepare the CF before putting it in the XT-IDE? While this was crucial, no matter what I did there was no way I could FORMAT or install DOS on another machine and then transfer it over -- it had to be all done on the Tandy but this first step had to be done in Windows first.

@infiniteclouds

read that! i also did that (CMD part in Win10)

of course it didn't work.

fdisk on DOS 3.3 gives me 4 options- #4 to list drives /partitions and the CF doesn't appear.

I can't fdisk the only active drive into more partitions as its my boot c drive

my issue might be with the TL2 model itself- i was told by James Pearce to merge bioses- the XTIDE with onboard controller ("dump C000h-CBFFh to a file, copy /b board.bin + ide_xtp.bin newcf.bin and write the option rom to the card... )

i just can't get debug to dump to file. will search for a hex dump program that is dos 3.3 compatible and try to merge/pad the roms, but i doubt i will ever get this to work without very specific instructions!

thanks again

drphilxray wrote:

fdisk on DOS 3.3 gives me 4 options- #4 to list drives /partitions and the CF doesn't appear.

Hey, is this *after* you used FDISK/MBR command from a DOS 5.0 or later FDISK ?

nope- its after i used fdisk on a dos 3.3 system. i have yet to upgrade to 5.0 - waiting on 720kDD disks from ebay.

im just trying to wrap my head around how the XT-IDE boots- I do *not* have PC XT mem map memorized, 🤣!

if the XTIDE-CF board is showing up, but boots from the C: old tandy HD, is the onboard controller really interfering? i *should* be able
to get CF drive (256mb) to show up for FDISK. I barely remember what happens on FDISK for options 1-3 (does it wipe drive right away- leaving
the tandy HD erased or give me a confirm option?)

anyhoo, I know there are a *million* and one issues with getting the right CF card recognized- to include wiping it (hddclean, wipe with 0 etc) on the original system, NOT any modern system, etc.

i think i just need step by step directions to find/fdisk partition/ format fat16B in my old age 😉

I can't guarantee that your issue is the same that I was having but I 100% could not get a bootable 3.3 DOS on my system until I first popped in a DOS 5.0 disc and used THAT fdisk to do an fdisk/mbr. Then I backed out of the installation and popped in 3.3, installed it, etc. and that finally worked.

Same here, but with an IBM 5150. No way to install 3.3 using XT-IDE. It did let me fdisk the disk, but would then freeze on next boot. With 5.0 however, it worked without any issues.

Okay, then I would say the chances are very good Dr Xray that you will have success doing what I did -- use DOS 5.0's FDISK utility to do an master boot record format (fdisk/mbr) then back and pop in your 3.3 disks and install.

yes, dos 5 successfully upgraded (using working 720k FD!) and yet i *still* have to merge the Tandy 1000TL2 onboard HD bios with the xtide cf (the .bin for 286 and better), which i can't figure out using debug command line 🙁

any good hex DOS 5 utils out there that will let me dump mem address to a file and merge bios'?
tks guys

Did you ever solve this? I have a Tandy 1000 TL/2 with an internal 8-bit XT hard drive that I want to replace with CF.

I'm already experiencing massive difficulties trying to get IDE->CF working in a Tandy 2500 XL/2. The IDE->CF adapters and several cards worked on a much newer PC, so the problem is at the Tandy 2500 XL/2. I can't take much more of this, since I've bought multiple cards, multiple adapters, and have had no success. I've considered getting a BIOS card from Monotech, but I don't know if that'll work in the 2500 or if I will need an IDE interface too (there's one on my SB16, but the one integrated into the 2500's motherboard cannot be disabled from what I can see).

I figured I would buy an XT-IDE->CF ISA card for the Tandy 1000 TL/2, but you seem to have struggled with this back in 2019 and I am getting tired of troubleshooting. I just want these things to work. 🙁

EDIT: I solved the 2500 XL/2. Now I’m totally stuck with my Tandy 1000 TL/2. No matter what IDE address I use, or universal BIOS version I use, everything stops dead at trying to boot from or run any programs on the CF card in the Monotech XT-IDE card. Its ROM is at D8000.

Hi, sorry for invading this thread again.. 😅

I know of an alternative that may do.
It's unconventional, needs a V20 maybe, but no XTIDE orbany other software.

It's the classic DiscOnChip 2000 module, aka DOC.
It comes with an internal boot loader and 8-Bit I/O.
You can build yourself a simple ISA card with minimal effort.
Or use it on a network card card, I believe.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiskOnChip

https://hackaday.com/2018/03/30/a-retrocomput … disk-on-a-chip/

http://www.daupara.de/surfstation/

https://forum.classic-computing.de/forum/inde … er-isa-rechner/

http://hobby-electronics.blogspot.com/2006/04 … p-2000.html?m=1

If anyone comes looking for the same issues I described in my post above about my 2500 XL/2... I solved it (but now I’m stuck with my 1000 TL/2).

The 2500 XL/2 needed:

This small ISA ROM card:
https://monotech.fwscart.com/DoubleROM_-_IDE_ … 4_19995208.aspx
This ROM card sidesteps the Tandy 2500 XL/2's BIOS' IDE controller-related functions. I had to go into the Tandy BIOS setup (setupxl2.exe) and mark both primary and secondary drives as "none", since the ROM card fills in for that stuff.

And a Sound Blaster 16 CT2290, which sidesteps the Tandy 2500 XL/2's crappy integrated IDE controller. It wasn't enough to have the ROM card, since the Tandy 2500 XL/2 IDE controller cannot handle the compact flash cards I've tried to use. I set the SB16's IDE controller address to 170h, ran the ROM card's XTIDECFG.COM config tool, selected "detect..." and everything came up just fine. It even ignored the Tandy's internal IDE controller, telling me there was only 1 IDE controller (the SB16's).

Rebooted and the card works fine as a boot device, even though it was partitioned and formatted on a much newer PC. YAY!!

EDIT: PS: I eventually got the 1000 TL/2 working with an XTIDE BIOS card that also has a CF card socket on it... but the Sound Blaster clone (seems to be an ESS Audio Magician Plus) freezes the machine on using its DAC, despite having set it to IRQ5 and DMA3 (the Tandy DAC is bound to IRQ7 and DMA 1). The Tandy DAC works, though.