🚀 go-pugleaf

"Greg Andrzejewski" <pressyourluck85@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:6pydnZWjzcxR12LdRVn-ug@comcast.com...
> Hi,
>     I have a Tandy Coco 3 with a FD 501 disk drive. I'm trying to get
Nitros
> 9 to work, but I can't seem to figure it out. I've tried writing the disk
> images with two different computers with no change. The system will either
> lock while at the boot screen or not start booting at all.
> My guess would be that the images are double-sided disks and the FD 501 is
a
> single sided drive. Would I be right in this assumption? If so, can I swap
> the drive in the FD 501 with a standard PC 5.25" high density drive? Or,
> where can I get a single-sided version of nitros?
>
> Thanks,
> Greg Andrzejewski

You can't use 5.25" HD but you can use 3.5" HD drives.

With 3.5" drive you have to stick with DD (720K) disks (or tape over the
density hole of a HD disk).

Most 3.5" drives don't have jumpers for drive select anymore.  This can be
overcome by modifying a PC cable.  The motor control line needs to be
changed.  I'll look up the pinout and follow up later.  It is a relatively
simple change and you can use current drives on many antique computers.

You can mound 3.5" drives in your drive case with a standard 3.5" -> 5.25"
mounting bracket.

720K disks usually have to be specially ordered but are still very
available.

bit.listserv.coco is a good usenet group for COCO discussions.

Randy