GridCase3 Plus Delivering Constant Disk Error Message - Does Anyone Have 3.3 Floppy with OS?

[indians123]

I have a GridCase3 Plus running Phoenix ROM Bios Ver 2.03, 06/08/87 that refuses to boot from the MS-DOS 3.5 floppy that came with it. I've tried winimage, rawrite to generate a new 3.3 img but nothing seems to work. The machine is in great condition otherwise, complete with a power pack and floppy drive. Other things I've tried:

• Ctrl + Alt + B ...– F Key.....R Key:.....:H Key: beeps, then tries to use floppy, then cursor blinks then “Disk Boot Error”

Does anyone here have a 3.5 MS-DOS floppy for this machine that would work? Please DM me

 

[Istarian]

Are you sure that your problem isn't with the disk drive itself or the floppy disk media you are using?

Also, USB floppy drives supposedly cannot properly write a 3.5" DS DD (720k) disk, even though they may be able to read one.

So you would need to use a system with a standard floppy disk controller and a non-USB 3.5" floppy drive.

-----

MS-DOS 3.30

Originally 86-DOS, written by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products, DOS was a rough clone of CP/M for 8086 based hardware. Microsoft purchased it and licensed it to IBM for use with Microsoft's IBM PC language products. In 1982, Microsoft began licensing DOS to other OEMs that ported it to...

winworldpc.com

There's a "3.30 GRiD OEM" download listed, although it looks to be a 720K disk that would need to go on double density 3.5" floppy disk media.

 

[indians123]

Good suggestions, but I've already run an unconditional format to completely clear the magnetic field on the 720KB floppy before writing the OS and downloaded raw MS-DOS 3.2 and 3.3 files, then tried to flash the image via RawWrite on a 720 DD disk (winimage kept failing). The floppy drive seems to work fine -- it clicks and searches , scanning the disk surface but rejects the specific format or sector layout it encounters. Could it be head alignment drift between the drive and GridCase? I'm deciding whether to sell my system on ebay, since I've spent so much time trying to troubleshoot.

 

[Istarian]

Good suggestions, but I've already run an unconditional format to completely clear the magnetic field on the 720KB floppy before writing the OS and downloaded raw MS-DOS 3.2 and 3.3 files, then tried to flash the image via RawWrite on a 720 DD disk (winimage kept failing).

I'm not sure what you think it is that you've done, but afaik it's nigh impossible to undo the effect of writing to a DSDD disks as though it were a DSHD disk.

For the sake of argument, we'll assume that your process was effective and the disk got written correctly (at least in the absence of contradictory evidence).

The floppy drive seems to work fine -- it clicks and searches , scanning the disk surface but rejects the specific format or sector layout it encounters. Could it be head alignment drift between the drive and GridCase?

Have you considered pulling the drive from the GridCase and using it to write the disks? Or alternatively swapping the drive you wrote the disks with into the GridCase?

Using a GoTek floppy drive emulator might make that a tad easier.

If there's a signficiant deviation in alignment between the two floppy disks drives, then them not being able to read disks written in the other drive is to av

 

[indians123]

Thanks, I'll give the GoTek a try.