Please Note: The information in this document has just been translated over from the printed version (14-Aug-98) and is being reviewed. There are errors! This notice will go away once all the obvious errors are corrected. From there, this document will be upgraded over time.

DEAD MUNK

My Chipmunk died ... help!

Many years ago, Holms Engineering built a disk drive, called a the Chipmunk, for the Tandy, Radio Shack Model 100 computer. The disk operating system (DOS) for the Chipmunk disk drive was called CDOS and programed by PCSG in Texas. CDOS resided on a ROM in the Chipmunk and booted into the Model 100 when the machine was turned on, or when you tapped the reset key, or issued the BASIC command CALL 0.

The Chipmunk (Aka: Munk) drive connected to the Model 100 by a cable and special interface card attached to the system bus under the computer. Drive booting and operations were fast and convenient. CDOS formatted disks to 360K, supported subdirectories, and downloading or uploading directly to and from the drive from within TEXT, BASIC and TELCOM. In short, the Chipmunk drive and CDOS were wonderful.

With in a few years, Tandy Corporation replaced the Model 100 computer with the Model 102. In doing so, they changed some things. To make a long story short, the Model 102 did not support the Chipmunk disk drive without serious internal modifications which voided the warranty. Chipmunk sales died.

Chipmunk owners, today, either are still using their Munk and loving it, or have a dead Munk on their hands. Dead Munk's can not be fixed because the parts are just not available in the open market. Several of the chips used in the construction of the Chipmunk disk drive were custom manufactured by Holms Engineering.

So, what do you do when you Munk dies? Munk owners have files on Munk-formatted disks, which of course can not be read by any other computer. Here are some solutions:

Solution #1
If your Munk has not died, start coping your files to a more common media like TPDD (Tandy Portable Disk Drive) disks, or to Mac or DOS disks. In all cases you will be coping one file at a time, i.e., from the Munk to the 100, from the 100 to the other media, then kill the file from the 100 and start the process again for the next file.

There's always an easy way and a hard way to do most computer tasks. There are tools you can purchase that will ease the pain, making the process quite easy. Here is a recommended list of tools to facilitate the coping of files from the Munk to other media.

(Model T = Models 100, 102, 200, NEC8201)

TS-DOS ROM - used for Model T to TPDD/TPDD2 copies
LeskLink & TS-DOS - used for Model T to DOS copies
Lapdos II  - used for Model T or TPDD/TPDD2 to DOS copies
100duet    - used for Model T or TPDD/TPDD2 to Mac copies

Solution #2
If your Munk is dead you have two options: 1) Find someone with a live Munk and borrow it, or 2) Hire Club 100 to copy files from your Chipmunk-formatted disks to MS-DOS formatted disks. Cost is just $5 per disk.

Solution #3
It is possible that Club 100 has spare Chipmunk drives on hand. If so, we will sell you a working Munk drive for $50 + $5 s&h UPS. We will test the Munk to make sure it works before we ship it to you, but will not warrant, replace, refund or repair it if it fails to work within any time limit what-so-ever. If this solution appeals to you, please call, first, to see if we have a Munk drive available.

Conclusion: The Chipmunk disk drive was a great drive. The Chipmunk drive was always the state of the art in Model 100 storage media. Chipmunk owners enjoy using their Munks and swear by them until their Munk dies--then they swear at them. But at least Munk owners aren't SOL (Sort'a Out'a Luck) when their Munk dies, thanks to the many services of Club 100.