cac@druco.ATT.COM (Curtis A. Conkey) (01/06/89)
I'm thinking of getting a hard drive to put on my Tandy 1000 TX system. I've looked at the Tandy drives and $600 for 20 meg seems a little (lot) on the steep side since I've seen 30 Meg drives for ~$300 from the mail order houses. What I'd like to do is get a mail order disk and install it. Are there any Tandy owners that have gone this route? Are there any pitfalls to watch out for? Did Tandy do anything FUNNY to their box to lock users in to their drives? (This is what I'm really worried about). Thanks Curtis Conkey druco!cac
mlc@csucis.UUCP (Cipalla Mike) (01/07/89)
I work for Radio Shack and right now you can get a 20 meg hard card for
$399 its on sale. I have also heard of some problems with other hard cards
used in tandy computers but have trouble believing them because the TX is
very compatable with IBM, I just thought I would tell you. The sale price
will last until all the hard cards are gone since tandy is introducing a new
20 meg hard card in the summer, at least that is what my district manager
told me when I asked.
Mikejmj@mhuxu.UUCP (J. M. Johnson) (01/07/89)
In article <3430@druco.ATT.COM>, cac@druco.ATT.COM (Curtis A. Conkey) writes: > I'm thinking of getting a hard drive to put > on my Tandy 1000 TX system. I've looked at the > Tandy drives and $600 for 20 meg seems a little (lot) > on the steep side since I've seen 30 Meg drives for ~$300 > from the mail order houses. What I'd like to do is get > a mail order disk and install it. > Are there any Tandy owners that have gone this route? > Are there any pitfalls to watch out for? > Did Tandy do anything FUNNY to their box to lock users in > to their drives? (This is what I'm really worried about). I just bought myself a 30 meg hardcard for my 1000sx. I got it from a mail order house in CA and have been very happy with it. The card consists of a Seagate ST138R disk and WD 1002-27X controller and was accompanied by disk cache and backup software. It comes with a 30 day money back guarantee and 1 yr. warranty. The price was $389 plus an extra $20 for Tandy compatability. I had the drive in my hot little hands in about a week (regular UPS) but I could have had it the next day if I wanted :-) One of the "FUNNY" things that Tandy does is use a different interrupt for the hard disk. Also, there were only two power supply connections in my box but my controller card gets its power from the bus to get around this. The only thing I am dissapointed about is that I had to remove my clock/calendar chip to put the drive in. The ROM that it plugs in under is right under the drive and it stuck up too high with the c/c chip. Some sort of adapter would be nice. I have no affiliation with Shamrock, just a happy customer. Shamrock 733-AA Lackfield Rd. Westlake Village, CA 91316 (805) 373-7847 Check out their add in the back of PC World magazine. -- Life's just a game, you fly a paper plane, there is no end. - TBA J. M. Johnson, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Reading, PA ...!att!mhuxu!jmj
ncegeber@ndsuvax.UUCP (Roger Egeberg) (01/08/89)
In article <3430@druco.ATT.COM> cac@druco.ATT.COM (Curtis A. Conkey) writes: > >I'm thinking of getting a hard drive to put >on my Tandy 1000 TX system. ... You might want to consider CompuAdd from Austin, TX. We've been dealing with them for almost 4 years now and have always gotten good service and support. They have a 20M FlashCard for the Tandys for $359 and a 30M for $379. We haven't bought any of the Tandy ones, but have bought about 50 of their IBM PC/clone Flashcards. I think the Tandy ones use the same Miniscribe disk and Western Digital controller, but are on a shorter frame to fit the short slots in the Tandy computers. I also bought a Flashcard 30 for my personal PC at home, and I haven't had any problem with it. Oh yes, CompuAdd also has regular (not hard card) hard disk kits for Tandys. -- Roger Egeberg USENET: ncegeber@ndsuvax.UUCP NDSU Extension Service BITNET: nu062423@ndsuvm1.BITNET North Dakota State University Internet: ncegeber@plains.NoDak.edu
reyn@trsvax.UUCP (01/10/89)
While the default interrupt for Hard Drives on Tandy 1000's is non-standard, the 1000-TX, 1000-TL, and 1000SL (and I think the 1000SX) have jumpers on their motherboards to allow selection of the IBM standard interrupt. If you have an older 1000, you will have to get a hard disk controller specified as Tandy 1000 compatible. The TX has one 16 bit AT style slot, and will accept a 16 bit Hard Drive controller. Strangely enough, the TL has no such slot. I have still yet to see a hard drive controller for either the 1000EX or 1000HX John Reynolds Tandy R&D The above information may be inaccurate due to my low moral fibre, for official type facts, contact Radio Shack Customer Service. They actually know what they're talking about. "DeskMate is not Windows-based, therefore it's not truly graphical." William Gates III on DeskMate
jmj@mhuxu.UUCP (J. M. Johnson) (01/12/89)
In article <193300088@trsvax>, reyn@trsvax.UUCP writes: > > I have still yet to see a hard drive controller for either the 1000EX or > 1000HX Check out the Jan 89 issue of PCM. There are two vendors selling hard drive kits for the EX and HX, Discount Computer Supplies and MegaHaus. -- Life's just a game, you fly a paper plane, there is no end. - TBA J. M. Johnson, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Reading, PA ...!att!mhuxu!jmj
reyn@trsvax.UUCP (01/13/89)
I wish to publicly retract my comment that the 1000-TX has an AT style expansion slot. It doesn't, as numerous people have pointed out, and it serves me right for confusing engineering prototypes with the real thing. Sorry for the confusion... John Reynolds Tandy Electronics R&D Now you know why they don't let me design hardware. Now for some better info on adding Hard Drives to the 1000's ... Up until the 1000SL and 1000TL, all Tandy 1000's shipped using IRQ2 for the hard drive interrupt. This was done to remain compatible with some IBM PCjr video routines ( strange but true ). The SX and TX have a dip switch on the motherboard which allows you to swap the interrupt to IRQ5 ( switch S-1 position 2 should be switched to off ). The Tandy 1000SL and 1000TL are shipped with the more standard IRQ5 for hard disks, and have a jumper on the motherboard in the rare case that you need to run the aforementioned IBM PCjr routines. The above information I think is true, but as you see by my track record if you really need to know, call Customer Service.