Uncreative Labs

Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 22

I recently got my hands on one of those and can't wait to look at some pixels on a red gas plasma screen.
But there's a problem. Aside from not having it in my hands yet i'm told that it's missing it's original slim 5.25 fdd.
These don't seem to come cheap and besides, hooking a comparable drive like that to a modern PC is... less than convenient.

I do have some old 720k drives that might work on this machine (and even 1.44m drives but let's not get ahead of ourselves here)
I've read that this thing geta configured with a setup floppy and jumpers, no post bios setup.
I was wondering if anyone here has ever touched these machines and knows if this is even possible, installing any kind of 3.5" drive that is. Or if this would be a waste of time and trying to get my 5.25 drive to talk to my modern PC (and spend $70 on a slim drive) would be more fruitful.

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Almost all early Compaqs used "Softpaqs" (setup floppies). It's still available from Compaq/HP's website (FTP). As for the FDD, you'd somehow need to change the format in the setup with the original-capacity disk(I know, chicken & egg thing). I've got a slim 5.25" drive somewhere but no idea if it works. You're welcome to it for shipping charges if you want.

Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 22

That would certainly make things easier for me,
If you can spare it i'll take it.
We'll see if it works