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MFM LL formatter

N

NobodyIsHere

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Dec 21, 2006
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2,410
Hi All,
This morning I have been working on trying to recover an old MFM ST412 hard disk drive. Nothing seems to be working, even the ST11M's BIOS LL routine doesn't seem to be getting through to this drive.

I *had* a spinrite II disk but it self destructed. Not sure what happened but I should have kept a backup. :-/

Does anyone have spinrite II that can send me a disk image so I can repair this disk?

Thanks in advance!

Andrew Lynch
 
If it is connected to an original IBM floppy controller, there is no LL routine built in. You have to format it from the advanced diagnostics disk... I have one ;)
 
dongfeng said:
If it is connected to an original IBM floppy controller, there is no LL routine built in. You have to format it from the advanced diagnostics disk... I have one ;)
Click to expand...

-------
Hmm... if you had an ST-412 hard disk connected to an IBM floppy controller, I think that even with an advanced diagnostics disk you'd have some difficulty formatting it...

m
 
:)

OK, I had the ST412 attached to an original IBM XT hard drive controller. I also tried it with a WD HD controller and got the same results. Tried the drive again on a different machine (486) with a different WD HD controller and same again.

The ST412 drive appears to respond to a low level format command but does not actually do anything. Any attempt to read the drive or partition it results in some sort of "communicating with drive" type error.

I tried many combinations, tried changing the drive ID, etc but no luck. I am afraid that ST412 drive has died so I am placing it on the scrap pile.

I got the ST412 originally because it is one of the two hard drives the VG hard disk controller supports, the other being an ST506, and is the also supported by the PC architecture. I was hoping to experiment with this drive before I have to start cutting into the ST506 controller.

The VG HD controller requires the "constant index" modification as it predates any sort of LSI HD controller chip. It is made of entirely SSI and MSI components and is definitely not an "intelligent" controller like you'd find in an XT or later computer. However, since this drive has expired I guess I will just go with one of the ST506's.

That's life! Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
Does anyone have the IBM Advanced Diagnostic Disk who would be willing to forward it to me ? I did a Google which took me to the IBM FTP site but the folder was empty except for a .txt file explaining how to use it. The rest of the Google references came up dry. I want to try it on a ST225 unless I've already irrepairably fouled it up with DM and Spinrite.

Thanks,

Lawrence
 
It works. I provided it. :)

Lawrence - sorry I missed your original request ...
 
Hi mbbrutman,

I tried the image but it dit not work on my XT and also not on the PC (with expansion chassis). I could sucessfully extract the image to a 360kb floppy... all data could be read under DIR but when I booted up the PC/XT they seem to hang during boot up.. and nothing happens. I stopped after some minutes

I was waiting for a diagnostics menu.. right? but the lamp of the disk drive stays red without reading data...

I made the image with standard-XT format options in DSKIMAGE (0:40:2:9) ..
 
unfortunately, it sounds to me like that poor ol' MFM is shot.:(

not many of them left these days, hate to see em die. i have two. one is complete toast (seagate). the other is on it's last legs (miniscribe), i was going to try a full LLF and see if that helps at all, at least for now.
 
alker said:
Hi mbbrutman,

I tried the image but it dit not work on my XT and also not on the PC (with expansion chassis). I could sucessfully extract the image to a 360kb floppy... all data could be read under DIR but when I booted up the PC/XT they seem to hang during boot up.. and nothing happens. I stopped after some minutes

I was waiting for a diagnostics menu.. right? but the lamp of the disk drive stays red without reading data...

I made the image with standard-XT format options in DSKIMAGE (0:40:2:9) ..
Click to expand...

And that's the problem. Read the directions on DSKIMAGE:

  • If it is a 160KB image, use 0:40:1:8
  • If it is a 180KB image, use 0:40:1:9
  • If it is a 320KB image, use 0:40:2:8
  • If it is a 360KB image, use 0:40:2:9

I think that is a 160KB image, so use 0:40:1:8. You utterly confused it by writing the image back to the drive with a different format.
 
Damn. At the rate MFM HDs are dissapearing or failing, I'm going to start scooping every PC or XT clone I find on the curb, in dumpsters, or thrift shops. One of my first ressurectings was of a clone XT with a bad MFM controller card. When I first heard of my possible problem I wondered what a HD would have to do with a radio broadcast format. ISTR that I paid $30 for a basic replacement card, and that was in the late 80s. I guess I figured my stash of MFM drives would be more than adequate to my needs and tossed many. IDE was the thing. The more memory the better. Who'd figure ?

Now if only 78 rpm vinyls would take off, or even 33 1/3 vinyls. I could live a life of leasure.

Lawrence
 
Aw, c'mon, give us geezers a break; this wasn't bad enough, ya had to rib him about that Model A as well... Good thing I've got something you want (which should be there shortly).

But seriously (and OT): What market, if any, is there for old 78's, and if ya did find a buyer how on earth would you ship them?

m
 
To put a morbid cast to it. An old friend of mine, John Black, made a living selling old wax. He had a shop for a time on King St, but also sold around the world, including Japan. There is a lively market for pristine 78s. He supplied to Jeff Healey most of Jeffs immense collection of old Jazz sides. Unfortunately we lost both of them within 2 weeks of each other last month. I had met Jeff Healey but John was my oldest friend going back to grade 6 and we went thru the jazz glory days of House of Hamburg, Town Tavern, and the Colonial in Toronto, as well as the after hours First Floor club and the Mink club where the two greatest canadian guitarists ever, Lennie Breau and Sonny Grenwich locked chops and people such as Ian Heinstrich and Dougie Richardson (another old friend who died recently)developed theirs.

And actually I lusted after a 1932 model B Ford runabout, 20 years after it came out. Or a 1931 Auburn convertable like my buddy Karl had. I guess I was always a retro kind of guy.

Check the inet for 78 collectors. They do have to be of pristine quality tho. The Sun Elvis records were selling for over a $1000 15 years ago, I likely have a couple of hundred 78s but due to my sloppy licentous lifestyle none could be called pristine.

And have you given up your Torfree roost ?

Lawrence

MikeS said:
Aw, c'mon, give us geezers a break; this wasn't bad enough, ya had to rib him about that Model A as well... Good thing I've got something you want (which should be there shortly).

But seriously (and OT): What market, if any, is there for old 78's, and if ya did find a buyer how on earth would you ship them?

m
Click to expand...
 
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