Floppy drive type on Tandy 1000TL

[Jerry Jones]

Hi,

I friend of mine has an "old" ~1985 vintage Tandy 1000TL with a 3.5" 720 k
floppy which is failing. I've been told that these older machines required
proprietary- "Tandy" type hard drives, but don't know if the floppy drive is
a standard type that is the same as earlier IBM type 3.5" 720 K drive. My hope
is that it is a standard type since these old floppy drives are very
inexpensive and available, whereas if a "Tandy" specific drive is required it
will be more expensive :-). Any Tandy owners out there who know the answer?

Thanks,

Jerry

--
Gerald J. Jones
Hillsboro, Oregon
jon...@teleport.com
(503)693-1030

[Daniel Kosack]

Jerry Jones (jon...@teleport.com) wrote:
: Hi,

: I friend of mine has an "old" ~1985 vintage Tandy 1000TL with a 3.5" 720 k

The Tandy 1000 TL is 1988... no older than that. It remained in
production, through three different series (the TL, TL/2, and TL/3) up
until 1991 or 1992.

: floppy which is failing. I've been told that these older machines required

: proprietary- "Tandy" type hard drives, but don't know if the floppy drive is

Wrong again there too... Tandy hard drives are made by Western
Digital and Seagate... just throw in any XT/IDE type and it will work.

: a standard type that is the same as earlier IBM type 3.5" 720 K drive. My hope

: is that it is a standard type since these old floppy drives are very
: inexpensive and available, whereas if a "Tandy" specific drive is required it
: will be more expensive :-). Any Tandy owners out there who know the answer?

Any low density 3.5" should work just fine... oh, and through
experience, those drives are NOT that available.... inexpensive yes,
available no. They were quite numerous on the used market a few years
ago, when the people who could upgrade, did upgrade.

: Thanks,

: Jerry

: --
: Gerald J. Jones
: Hillsboro, Oregon
: jon...@teleport.com
: (503)693-1030

Daniel Kosack

[Rachel Corwith]

Machines of that vintage (i.e. post 25-1000a era) did not require special hardware. Standard hardware was used. Your best replacement for this drive would probably be a new hard drive controller card for Smart Drive and a energy efficient hard drive. You constraint on this is that the machine has a 60 Watt power supply, so keep this in mind when selecting a replacement drive. Also remember, although it is 286, it has a 8 bit bus, not 16.

Rachel Corwith

[Leonard Erickson]

jon...@teleport.com (Jerry Jones) writes:

>I friend of mine has an "old" ~1985 vintage Tandy 1000TL with a 3.5" 720 k

>floppy which is failing. I've been told that these older machines required
>proprietary- "Tandy" type hard drives, but don't know if the floppy drive is

>a standard type that is the same as earlier IBM type 3.5" 720 K drive. My hope
>is that it is a standard type since these old floppy drives are very
>inexpensive and available, whereas if a "Tandy" specific drive is required it
>will be more expensive :-). Any Tandy owners out there who know the answer?

You'll need a Tandy Drive. You see, on the TL series, the power to the
drive is supplied via the "data" cable. There's no seperate power cable.

Putting a "normal" drive in there will either fry the drive or fry the
power supply.

--
Leonard Erickson leo...@qiclab.scn.rain.com
FIDO: 1:105/51 Leonard....@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org (preferred)

[GaryP37]

A place called DCS industries sells high density floppy drives for tandy
computers. They sell teac drives. the secret is the adapters that comes
with the drive. 1-800-537-3539 is their number. I have a Tandy 1000 TL/3.
Stroker Ace

[EddieC1564]

The secret is, remove the odd wires from the drive cable. these on the
Tandy 1000 TL and 3000NL supply the +5volt power! THe after market drives
and other computers use those as ground!!! I removed the odd wires from
the drive cable and have no problems using any floppy drive in both 1000
TL and 3000 NL
Eddie...@aol.com