exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

rubber_jonnie wrote: 22 Sep 2024 14:57 Unfortunately not, although I have lots of spare FDD's, it's a non-standard FDD with a 26 pin IDC plug that also carries power, so I may need to make up some sort of adapter to connect a standard FDD drive.

You can get this kind of adapter:

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%95%E3%8 ... uage=ja_JP

I guess you could find one on Ebay UK.

HigashiJun wrote: 23 Sep 2024 01:05

rubber_jonnie wrote: 22 Sep 2024 14:57 Unfortunately not, although I have lots of spare FDD's, it's a non-standard FDD with a 26 pin IDC plug that also carries power, so I may need to make up some sort of adapter to connect a standard FDD drive.

You can get this kind of adapter:

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%95%E3%8 ... uage=ja_JP

I guess you could find one on Ebay UK.

Unfortunately that won't work because it's a 26 pin IDC plug and not a flat flex cable. I got very excited when I saw these on eBay until I realised that :(

The other issue is that of space, in that there isn't any in the case...

If I can figure out the pinout then I should be able to make a physical adapter, which will be enough to get it up and running.

@rubber_jonnie

My bad...

I didn't see the word "IDC" in your post.

So this one would be OK ?:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204491864750

(Not for fitting the drive permanently, but just to check if another drive works).

HigashiJun wrote: 23 Sep 2024 10:46 @rubber_jonnie

My bad...

I didn't see the word "IDC" in your post.

So this one would be OK ?:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204491864750

(Not for fitting the drive permanently, but just to check if another drive works).

Oh, nice find :) Looks like it might do the trick.

EDIT: Found the same on eBay UK, so ordered, though it's coming from China...

rubber_jonnie wrote: 23 Sep 2024 10:52 Oh, nice find :) Looks like it might do the trick.

EDIT: Found the same on eBay UK, so ordered, though it's coming from China...

You will then know whether the issue is related to your FDD or to something on the motherboard.

HigashiJun wrote: 23 Sep 2024 11:03

rubber_jonnie wrote: 23 Sep 2024 10:52 Oh, nice find :) Looks like it might do the trick.

EDIT: Found the same on eBay UK, so ordered, though it's coming from China...

You will then know whether the issue is related to your FDD or to something on the motherboard.

Indeed. Appreciate you finding that :), thanks

8-)

OK, so am at the moment trying to clone the CF card from the 512MB Book 8088 drive. Gotta love dd on Mac/Linux for making drive cloning so easy.

Will do the 2GB card from the Pocket 386 next so I have some images to play with, and hopefully once the adapter arrives, I can see what's going on with the FDD side of things.

OK, so I managed to clone the 512MB CF card to one of my 2GB CF cards ok and managed to find that the 2GB cards detect using my Pocket 386 as 3909 cylinders, 16 heads and 63 sectors, and the Arche now happily boots from that 2GB card, albeit with a 512MB partition.

I also cloned the 2GB card from my Pocket 386 and cloned that, however that doesn't boot, which is a shame as that has Win 95 on it and is probably more appropriate for this machine. The cloned card does however boot in the Pocket 386, so I know it's an Arche problem.

I'll take what I can get at the moment now, since the FDD is definitely not in a happy place and this is the only way I can get it to boot. I'm sure I can copy the files across, though it would be nice to get things working with the 2GB card.

Well, I hadn't expected to have this old behemoth out:


But it has a PCMCIA card slot that is excellent for tinkering with the 2x512MB and 1x1GB CF cards I received that don't work via USB with my more modern workbench Mac, either in Windows or Mac OS.

But this old 17" Powerbook G4 didn't care and I was effortlessly able to dd my other CF images over onto these cards.

What is a little frustrating with the Arche, is that despite being able to specify the CHS values and being able to tell the BIOS it has a 2GB drive, I can only ever see a single 512MB partition if I want it to boot.

The machine came with DOS 4, but that allows for partition sizes of up to 2GB, but even if I set the correct drive size in the BIOS and it boots from the first 512MB partition, I can't then add additional partitions later.

I tried adding a second drive, but it wasn't keen...

I really need the FDD adapter to arrive so I can see what I can do with a straight install onto a 2GB CF card, because if I image the 2GB card in my Pocket 386 (The Arche is also a 386) it won't boot, but the imaged CF card will work in the Pocket 386. If the drive adapter works then I should be able to shoehorn a Gotek in as there won't be room for a normal FDD and the adapter.

Another annoyance today, the FFC's I ordered from Ali Express for the keyboard are wrong. They weren't expensive, but despite checking I've yet again got the correct pitch, but the contacts are .5mm rather than 1mm.

It's driving me bonkers, but I can at least use an external keyboard for now until I figure it out. I want to figure out external video as well.