Thread by @RetroTechChris

Over the years, I've been a huge fan of XTIDE and the capabilities it has brought to retro PCs. Let's have a look at some of the XTIDE related hardware I have in my collection, and what I have done with the XTIDE Universal BIOS as well. Time for a 🧵

First, I imagine that many retro enthusiasts are familiar with it, but the XTIDE Universal BIOS is actively developed and offered at no cost to the retro community. If you haven't seen it before, you can read more about it here: xtideuniversalbios.org

Okay, time to explore. First, I am going to start with my Tandy 1000 HX. This system benefits from the development of a 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 card that have XTIDE, as well as other capabilities. These card brought storage, serial, parallel, and extra memory to the 1000 HX/EX.

You also have the option of using adapters to install standard "small" ISA cards in these systems. I've done that so that I can benefit from DMA support (which the other solutions lack) for my Zip 100 drive! Sadly, this Monotech XT-CF Mini is out of production.

Next, my Compaq Portable II has a XT-IDE-CF Optima card. I believe this card is no longer in production either, but it gives you the best of both worlds with both an IDE and CF connector!

In the opening post, we saw a picture of my IBM PS/2 Model 30 286. It has an older Monotech XT-CF card in it as well, also out of production. I think this was the very first variant of XTIDE hardware that I ever purchased! These are great cards!

Continuing on, you also saw in the opening post a picture of my new old stock Tandy 1000 SX. It has a newer Monotech XT-IDE Deluxe card in it. I REALLY like this card. I bought two of them in the recent past. They're out of stock, I hope they come back!

Goodness, all of these cards are out of stock!! So what can you buy if you want one? This great Lo-tech ISA XT CF adapter or XT-CF lite from TexElec! I recently picked up an XT-CF lite at VCFSW.

What about Microchannel systems? Well, you have a few great options! I happen to have an McIDE-CF in my PS/2 Model 70 386, and I also have a spare McIDE card as well.

So, yes, there are a lot of great XTIDE hardware solutions, but I have also just used the software in some cases. Someone recently made a BIOS update for the Compaq LTE 5000 series, and I put a a 240GB SSD in my LTE 5400:

I also had a weird case where drivers for a DTC VESA Local Bus controller were wonky with cylinder counts, and XTIDE fixed it right up!

For my Kehtron 486 computer, I wanted to use a larger drive, but the BIOS didn't support it. XTIDE to the rescue!

And finally, let's talk about a cool feature: you can actually boot up a computer over serial using XTIDE! This is great for cases where perhaps you have a PC without a working FDD.

Anyway, this was fun. It's pretty incredible how much variety there is here. I love the capability that XTIDE brings to old computers! Thanks for following along.

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