• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Tandy 3800 HD Repair/Restoration

There under the spot of light?
Ugh....
Pity.... I love seeing what these old drives have on them... got a couple of wanted softwares from such random purchases.

Well... it will make an interesting paperweight. :p
 
Really something that small will ruin it? That's sad... It's not as deep of a scratch as the light reflecting in it makes it appear... Like I said I saw some worse that are from the head itself just spinning... but then again its in the direction it spun...
Also mine IS a CP2064... the one on ebay was the closest I found so I posted it saying I could buy it for replacement if I needed to and or it would work...
 
Conmega said:
Really something that small will ruin it? That's sad... It's not as deep of a scratch as the light reflecting in it makes it appear... Like I said I saw some worse that are from the head itself just spinning... but then again its in the direction it spun...
Also mine IS a CP2064... the one on ebay was the closest I found so I posted it saying I could buy it for replacement if I needed to and or it would work...
Click to expand...

In that case it is POSSIBLE that I might be able to save something off it...
It is going to depend upon a few things, like

1) is the head already damaged,
2) if not, is the scratch raised enough to damage the head as it spins,
3) is the directory stored in the scratched area,
4) if so, how many sectors of the directory are going to be affected by the damage,
5) would the controller board on my 2064 be able to work with it? (tentatively yes, as Ive had luck swapping 2024 boards for this reason.)

Realize that were talking about a RADIAL scratch... one that spans a good 30 or so TRACKS... so at least 30 SECTORS worth of data are gone!

I would be willing to try... if you want to attempt it... and I am willing to give you the 2064 I have in return if you want an original drive.
 
I'd love too keep it original and I'd love to see if you can get data off it considering it's past...
And if you are going to or are using your cp2064 don't worry about selling it to me because I don't want to mess with any of your plans/computers!
And considering I probably don't have much else to lose from this I might as well hand it off to you to attempt to get data off it!
 
Leeb, I might have another 2064 for you to try and figure out what's on it. Windows 8/7/XP refuse to recognize it is initialized using two different IDE to USB2 adapter. The Tandy laptop it was in won't boot from it, but I don't know if the laptops can boot from HD if the configuration data is bad. The floppy on that system had its belt and controller go bad, so I can't boot it from floppy at the moment to run setup. I don't know what is wrong with the HD. It can hear it spin up completely, it runs for about 30 seconds, then spins down.

Also, can either of you guys tell me what is the vertical height, in millimeters, of the RAM you have installed that fits in the system? I think maybe the SIMMs I got are too tall and won't fit properly :?
 
Last edited:
Paralel said:
Leeb, I might have another 2064 for you to try and figure out what's on it. Windows 8/7/XP refuse to recognize it is initialized using two different IDE to USB2 adapter. The Tandy laptop it was in won't boot from it, but I don't know if the laptops can boot from HD if the configuration data is bad. The floppy on that system had its belt and controller go bad, so I can't boot it from floppy at the moment to run setup. I don't know what is wrong with the HD. It can hear it spin up completely, it runs for about 30 seconds, then spins down.

Also, can either of you guys tell me what is the vertical height, in millimeters, of the RAM you have installed that fits in the system? I think maybe the SIMMs I got are too tall and won't fit properly :?
Click to expand...

What do you mean when you say the FD controller went bad? ON the drive, I hope? The controller for the FD AND HD are the same chip on the motherboard... :eek:

... and I had a USB adapter that absolutely would NOT talk to the Conner drives... period. Temperamental POS... ended up in the trash not long after.

the 2064 is (hopefully) not being recognized because it is not completing its self-test... hopefully also due to a stuck head assy. Id be happy to look at it, but if the onboard controller is fritzed there will be little I can do about it... as I have already 'given away' the one I had...

You are welcome to send it to me, and if I can do anything with/for/to it I am willing to try...

Just don't open it up and scratch the platters before you do! :D
 
Yeah, floppy controller on the drive.

Stuck head? Good idea. That may be it. Now that I think of it, I heard the drive spin up, but I didn't hear any head movement.
 
As I mentioned somewhere above, they USUALLY seek certain areas of the drive, return to the inner track, then park out on 0 as long as they are powered up...
It often sounds like a clock ticking very fast. :D


The floppy is a 263, yes?
I may have a good controller board I could part with... from the very 1st drive I got... with a broken head.
I will do some spelunking and report back after I get off work...
 
Last edited:
Yeah, the head goes to the inner track after I unstick it, but then it just powers down. Figure its a goner.

Same with the floppy, with the belt and the controller gone, I figure its not worth repairing.
 
As long as the heads are good, it IS worth keeping, and I'd be willing to offer you a discount on the 3800 in exchange...

IF the heads are (presumed) still good... or not VISUALLY damaged, Id like to have it for repair.
 
leeb said:
As long as the heads are good, it IS worth keeping, and I'd be willing to offer you a discount on the 3800 in exchange...

IF the heads are (presumed) still good... or not VISUALLY damaged, Id like to have it for repair.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the heads look good to me. No obvious weirdness. If you want the head assembly from the drive, I'll just drop it in the mail.
 
EDIT:

Now that I think about it... as long as you don't have to separate the two heads that would be okay... the trk0 sensor is separate and wouldn't have to be moved to R/R heads...
 
Last edited:
leeb said:
EDIT:

Now that I think about it... as long as you don't have to separate the two heads that would be okay... the trk0 sensor is separate and wouldn't have to be moved to R/R heads...
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's the entire head assembly, so nothing of that has been separated.
 
No problem. I'm just glad you posted that you wanted it and that I checked the forum before I cleaned up my work area. I was only about a 1/2 an hour away from chucking that part of the drive in the trash.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top