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SB 16 on XT

SB16 does allow IRQ2 assignment, even DIAGNOSE has it..

also, i have run spinrite in the past, everytime it does the emergency repair, the whole system freezes.. even pushing capslock doesn't put the light on..
 
i've done all this, i have a thread somewhere on this forum where I already had LL formatted the disk..

the HD's circuitry itself is failing.. the bad sectors are never the same, they are completely random, as it's more of a failing IC or component on the HD... the ribbon doesn't seem like it was lose, just more of a fluke..
 
dongfeng said:
Time to check eBay then :)
Click to expand...

nah, thats why i got a Zip 250 drive ;) it may be a little slower, but i sure got WAY more access than the HD could sure hold..

to be honest, all my HD does is boot, load drivers, and that's it.. everything else is run from the zip drive..
 
evildragon said:
also, i have run spinrite in the past, everytime it does the emergency repair, the whole system freezes.. even pushing capslock doesn't put the light on..
Click to expand...

You might not be running the right version. Spinrite 5 has a bug in it that GRC refuses to admit (sometimes it locks up while testing memory if you use the wrong DOS version). I have Spinrite 2.0 here; it is circa 1990 and an excellent choice for your machine. I've uploaded it to ftp.oldskool.org/pub/misc, as always. Please give it a shot as I'd like to see your hard drive fixed. Run it overnight on the maximum setting, using a clean boot (ie. no device drivers or TSRs loaded).
 
Trixter said:
You might not be running the right version. Spinrite 5 has a bug in it that GRC refuses to admit (sometimes it locks up while testing memory if you use the wrong DOS version). I have Spinrite 2.0 here; it is circa 1990 and an excellent choice for your machine. I've uploaded it to ftp.oldskool.org/pub/misc, as always. Please give it a shot as I'd like to see your hard drive fixed. Run it overnight on the maximum setting, using a clean boot (ie. no device drivers or TSRs loaded).
Click to expand...
I do get passed memory testing.. it's when it's actually scanning the drive, when it hits a supposed bad sector, and runs the thing that recovers the sector (that looks like an osciloscope), the whole machine freezes hard..

my version of spinrite is 4.0...

i'll download your and see what happens.. i have a boot floppy just for these purposes..
 
The only versions of spinrite worth running are 2.0 (fixes issues in 1.0), 5.0 since it's the last version that runs on 808x, and 6.0 (needs 386 or higher, interfaces with SMART, runs on any drive regardless of filesystem).

Let us know how spinrite 2.0 works for you.
 
ok.. so far i haven't had time to do it, but am loading it on my floppy right now..

btw, have you tried your SB16 in a computer with an 8-bit slot yet? preferabally one wih a 286 so you can run DIAGNOSE and hear the 16-bit sample play in full stereo?

EDIT: It's complaining about a system sector.. here's what it says..

"A surface defect has been detected underneath a *SYSTEM SECTOR* on physical sector: 5 of surface: 2 and clunder: 0 that is a DOS sector: 32. This sector lies within the DOS's FAT or root DIRECTORY, so it is not possible to relocate it's data to safety."

oh well, like i said, Zip disks are my mass storage device...
 
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evildragon said:
EDIT: It's complaining about a system sector.. here's what it says..

"A surface defect has been detected underneath a *SYSTEM SECTOR* on physical sector: 5 of surface: 2 and clunder: 0 that is a DOS sector: 32. This sector lies within the DOS's FAT or root DIRECTORY, so it is not possible to relocate it's data to safety."

oh well, like i said, Zip disks are my mass storage device...
Click to expand...

Or, you could wipe the drive and re-create the partition, but just start the partition after the first meg. That would bypass the bad sector...
 
Trixter said:
Or, you could wipe the drive and re-create the partition, but just start the partition after the first meg. That would bypass the bad sector...
Click to expand...
how would you create a partition AFTER unallocated space?

anyways, half way through spinrite (a whole day), i have a screen full of bad sectors..

i want to swear many times, but instead, i'll just say: Thank you for Zip Disks!
 
the xt guy said:
Trixter, I have versions 2.0, 3.1 and 4.0 of Spinrite. What's wrong with 3.1 and 4.0?
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There's actually something quite wrong with all of them :) The major problem with 3.1 is that Steve had some crazy idea in his head about how to test drives, and it runs something crazy like 21 different bitpatterns before moving on. It can take over 24 hours for an 80MB drive. 4.0 is better, but why run 4.0 when you can run 5.0?

For XTs, you generally try to run 5.0 -- if you can. My 5.0 (direct from the factory, not pirated) only runs when I run MS-DOS 6.22. I have not gotten it to get past the memory tests on ANY OTHER DOS VERSION, not MS-DOS 5.0, not PC DOS 3.3, not DRDOS, nothing. That doesn't sit well with me, but 5.0 has the most features and takes the least amount of time to pattern-test, so I only run it from a DOS 6.22 boot disk. (In fact, I don't even have spinrite on my hard drive, I have SPINRITE.IMG on my hard drive and I image it to diskette whenever I want to run it.)

Let me get something clear: Steve Gibson is a tiny bit paranoid and a bit of a loon. HOWEVER -- even though he gets a lot of the details wrong about how drives encode data (data is encoded through flux reversals, not amplitude changes!), his program performs the same practices that you would normally do to maintain the life of a drive (ie. load data from a track, reformat the track, lay the data back down, read the track to make sure it's good). So that's why I use it.

For some criticism on Gibson, check out:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.dcom.xdsl/msg/9aeee32323c2978e

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.win3x_wfw_dos/msg/ebab2b58c9432961?dmode=source

Probably the best program you can run on PURE MFM/RLL ONLY is HDTest by Jim Bracking. It gets MUCH more down and dirty with the hardware. But it doesn't support IDE or anything after MFM.
 
well, while i am glad that spinrite is marking all of my, um, bad sectors? (it's seriousy a page full), im not too sure everything his program says it does, it really does..

on spinrite, when it has that oscilloscope looking thing, supposedly showing the HD's modulation (or whatever), I did a test, on my "beat up" computer.. I unplugged the IDE cable from the HD, and the oscilloscope thing still ran!!! So, is it real, or is it fake? I wouldn't do something stupid like that on my IBM, that's for sure, but I question some bits of his programs..
 
If you have a pure MFM drive/controller, use Jim Bracking's program instead. It's found on simtel mirrors as hd-diag.zip. Read the docs included with it to figure out what to do.

Spinrite isn't bad, it just is about 80% marketing. I still run it, but only as a last resort.
 
i'll do it sometime in the near future..

as stated, i use my Zip as a mass storage now.. and don't really care for the HD at this point.. as long as it boots the computer with drivers, im set..
 
Believe it or not, it used to be acceptable to receive new drives with up to 10% bad sectors. Old ST-225 drives (and others) usually had a sticker on them with known defects.

196KB bad out of 20MB? I'd say you're par for the course (seriously).
 
Thanks for the tips

Thanks for the tips

Using the tips in this thread has enabled me to 'rescue' a genuine Amstrad PC1640 hard drive, bringing my PC1640HD30 closer to its original spec. (I was using a hard card before, which has now gone into the PC1512DD).

Once it was working, I used Interlnk/Intersvr from DOS6 and a parallel cable to copy everything across (MSDOS, GEM, etc..) Surprisingly fast operation using XtreePro.

So, a big thanks to everybody who contributed tips, especially Trixter (and by association, Jim Bracking).

Now if I could only get that elusive ECD monitor and an original (sloping style) Amstrad 2 button mouse.....

Paul.
 
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