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cromemco 250 needs Unix or Cromix 31.*

kharrell

New Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2007
Messages
1
I have a Cromemco 250 with the following cards
These are the boards that came with the system
DIAG rev b
64FDX rev b
GPIB rev b
OCT rev d
ESDC rev f
STDX rev d
XXU rev ad
XMU rev b
MCUX rev a
2MSU rev c
2MSU rev c

5 1/4 FLOPPY
QIC TAPE
190 Maxtor xt2190 hard drive

The system has a bad HD drive or a bad partition that shipped with the system. I can read some cylinders from the drive but have not tried to wboot a new system as I don't have a floppy image. I don't care about the info but have not inithard the drive yet as this would close the chance to get unix running or at least build a few boot disks.

I was able to boot the system with cromix images 31.05 from daves site. I had to swap a few cards because this version does not understand the newer cards in the system like the XXU/XMU cpu card. I'm using a DPU card now with 2048MSU Board memory card. The diag card is pulled also.

Goals
1 Use the system with CDOS and STDC controller. Not likely from what I know now. This would allow me access to all the CP/M software I have using a HD
partitioned allot

Next possible choice
Unix and use the faster CPU XXU and addition memory like the 2MSU cards.

Next possible choice
Not sure but open to suggestions.

Thanks
 
I have a Cromemco 250 with the following cards
These are the boards that came with the system

[snip]
Kharrell,
Sorry, I cannot help you much with getting it working but it sounds like a fun project.

That is a sweet Cromemco system. How did you come across it?

My suggestion is to do a lot of background research and obtain the manuals if possible. Then replace the hard disk with something compatible, install an OS, and try to get it to boot. I'd pull the original harddisk out to preserve it though as if its damaged running it further only makes it worse.

You may be able to recover the data on the drive with a disk recovery service like OnTrack but I doubt it would be worth the >$500 to do it.

Best of luck and keep us posted on your journey.

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch
 
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