What's the latest version of DOS that works on Tandy 1000 EX?

[cbmeeks]

Title pretty much says it all.

 

So I got a version of DOS off eBay. It's 6.22 and it came on 5.25" floppies. I realized my Tandy 1000 EX has a 360K drive. So it can't natively read the 1.2 MB disks that I got.

 

Luckily, I have a Compaq Portable III (286) that reads it just fine. So I created a 360K DOS boot disk. But, the Tandy won't read it. I'm not convinced the drive is good in the Tandy. Some disks get stuck in it.

 

But I can't get anything to boot on that machine.

 

I read that the Tandy 1000 EX shipped with DOS 2.11.

 

How can I either get DOS 2.11 on a 5.25" floppy or find another way to play some damn games on this computer! :-/

 

I've tried eBay but can't find a copy that old of DOS.

Thanks!

 

[Great Hierophant]

MS-DOS 6.22 will work in any Tandy, although if your EX only has 256KB you might not have enough left free RAM left over to play many games.

 

Tandy system disks are available here : http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/tandy1000.html

 

I would look into cleaning that drive. Get a cleaning disk or at least some isoprophyl alcohol and q-tip the drive heads. Also dust it off, check for broken stuff. Relubricate the drive rails with silicon dielectric grease.

[cbmeeks]

Thanks for the link!

 

Yeah, I think I will take that machine apart and see if I can give it a better cleaning. Especially the drive.

 

Do you know of a way for me to get those Tandy disks copied over to a floppy? I guess I need to get a 5.25" drive for my modern computer.

 

Thanks

[R.Cade]

256k machine will pretty much only play booters (disks that boot automatically to the game). Most any game that requires DOS first will not be able to run...

 

The Tandy should have DOS in ROM. Boot to that and see if you can format and read disks...

Edited September 13, 2016 by R.Cade

[Great Hierophant]

256k machine will pretty much only play booters (disks that boot automatically to the game). Most any game that requires DOS first will not be able to run...

 

The Tandy should have DOS in ROM. Boot to that and see if you can format and read disks...

I'm afraid you are wrong on both counts. According to MobyGames, there are over 500 DOS games that will work with 256KB RAM (including games only requiring 64KB or 128KB). That is in addition to the booters.

 

The OP's Tandy 1000 EX does not have DOS-in-ROM. It is the next model, the Tandy 1000 HX which does. The OP needs a way to copy software on to 360KB DD floppy disks if he is going to be able to use his computer.

Edited September 13, 2016 by Great Hierophant

[Great Hierophant]

Thanks for the link!

 

Yeah, I think I will take that machine apart and see if I can give it a better cleaning. Especially the drive.

 

Do you know of a way for me to get those Tandy disks copied over to a floppy? I guess I need to get a 5.25" drive for my modern computer.

 

Thanks

My advice is to use your Compaq Portable III with the drive that is inside the Tandy 1000 EX. It looks like it will take a lot of work to get the two to work together and you will probably have to keep the Compaq open for a while, but you only need to do it once until you have a DOS boot disk.

[cbmeeks]

I just bought the parts for a ISA Compact Flash adapter. I might try using that in my Compaq and then write 5.25" disks from there for my Tandy.

 

Hmmm....

 

 

**EDIT**

 

Wait...that's what you were saying....lol.

 

Yeah, good idea.

Thanks.

Edited September 14, 2016 by cbmeeks

[20ohm20]

I use Tandy-DOS 3.3 on my 1000EX, but my machine has 640k RAM and I boot from an external 720k 3.5" drive.

[82-T/A]

In my opinion, the best version of DOS for really old computers, is DOS 5.0. It's very reliable, and has all the improvements without all the fluff of the newer versions.

 

You don't need that much. Install DOS 5.0 on a newer computer, and then do a FORMAT /S on your 360k floppy. Then copy over SYS.COM onto the 360k boot disk you just made. When you then go to your Tandy, run a SYS C: after booting with the boot disk, and it'll install all the DOS 5.0 boot requirements. Then you can just manually copy over all the separate DOS 5.0 files from your newer computer to the Tandy.