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IBM WD12 Drive

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lyonadmiral

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So, I recently recieved a WD12 drive today; one that was purchased off of eBay, and thankfully not one from one of my fellow VCF'ers. Now I've skimmed over the documentation abroad and in both the VC Wiki and the FAQ here and the information found on minuszerodegrees.net, and what all of it says is that the IBM WD12 is a Type 1: 10 meg drive, I would just like a confirmation even though I've read it and confirmed it myself a dozen times.

Anyway, I plugged it in and it spins up but of course I get errors on the drive timing out or drive not ready, I suspect it is the on board electronics right? How often does the control board go bad, and if it does go bad, what usually is the suspect failure on the board (statistically speaking)?

I just am aggrivated by it, because this drive is in pristine shape, almost mint if I say so myself, not a spec of dust or dirt anywhere on the system, almost like the drive was sealed in its antistatic bag since the 80's.
 
Check the drive selects--and if it's the only drive on the line, make sure that the terminators are installed on the drive. 306/4/17, just like an ST412. Type 1 indeed.
 
lyonadmiral said:
Anyway, I plugged it in and it spins up but of course I get errors on the drive timing out or drive not ready,
Click to expand...
Have you performed a low-level format using the controller that the drive has been connected to?

Additional information will help.
XT class computer or AT class computer?
What is the make/model of the controller?
 
I don't suspect I'll get an answer before the thing goes back, but just in case I do; I connected it initially to an IBM AT with the stock FD/HD control and used the Diagnostics Disk to set it as a Type 1. As soon as I save the settings and restart the machine it'll just sit there and timeout with a 17xx failure Drive not ready.
 
I know what you mean by that sound. Whenever the drive spins up after being parked, it makes that sound as if the heads are being moved off the landing zone. Sometimes, although mine hasn't done it often, the drive will make that sound on a regular spinup.
 
lyonadmiral said:
I don't suspect I'll get an answer before the thing goes back, but just in case I do; I connected it initially to an IBM AT with the stock FD/HD control and used the Diagnostics Disk to set it as a Type 1. As soon as I save the settings and restart the machine it'll just sit there and timeout with a 17xx failure Drive not ready.
Click to expand...
If you still have the drive, try:

1. Perform physical set up of the drive on your IBM AT per this [IBM AT HDD diagram]
2. Set type 1 in CMOS/RTC SETUP.
3. Low-level format.
4. FDISK/FORMAT.

Low-level format procedure for this scenario at http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/mis...at using Advanced Diagnostics for AT disk.pdf
 
If that doesn't down lyonadmiral, the head assembly itself could be siezed up from sitting for a long time, i have a WD21 in a Zenith that did that, which reminds me, i really should do pull that old zenith out of storage..
 
modem7 said:
If you still have the drive, try:

1. Perform physical set up of the drive on your IBM AT per this [IBM AT HDD diagram]
2. Set type 1 in CMOS/RTC SETUP.
3. Low-level format.
4. FDISK/FORMAT.

Low-level format procedure for this scenario at http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/mis...at using Advanced Diagnostics for AT disk.pdf
Click to expand...

Maybe it is indeed the way I'm setting it up. I took a picture of the bottom of the WD-12, I can't find this jumper the diagram talks about. Additionally, I posted a picture of the WDC FD/HD control card. Is it normal for the element circled in red to get extremely hot to the touch?

Thanks,
Dan

WD12 Control Board.jpgWDC Hard Disk Controller.jpg
 
Dan, your photo of the drive bottom isn't terribly clear. I see a 8-pin DIP socket below the IC below the T-RES (terminator). Is it populated with anything? (FWIW, that's your drive select block).

VR1 will get pretty warm. Voltage regulators like to do that.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Dan, your photo of the drive bottom isn't terribly clear. I see a 8-pin DIP socket below the IC below the T-RES (terminator). Is it populated with anything? (FWIW, that's your drive select block).

VR1 will get pretty warm. Voltage regulators like to do that.
Click to expand...

Hi Chuck,
Yes it is populated, the block is OPEN, OPEN, OPEN, CLOSED.
 
So that indicates the first drive-select position. To be expected because the WD12 would have been iintended for the XT, which was supplied with a straight-through control cable.

In the move to the 5170, IBM changed things. The hard drives were jumpered for the second drive-select position, and thus the control cable became:

Code: 
             D:                 C:
            +--+               +--+
------------|  |-----   -------|  |
            |  |     \ /       |  |
   CONTROL  |  |      X        |  |
            |  |     / \       |  |
------------|  |-----   -------|  |
            +--+               +--+

You won't be able to modify the WD12's drive-select shunt block easily, in order to select the second drive-select position.
So, instead, try a straight-through control cable.

Alternatively, what you could try is connecting the WD12 to the drive D connector on the control cable. That's not the ideal solution because of possible signal reflection from the end connector.
 
modem7 said:
So that indicates the first drive-select position. To be expected because the WD12 would have been iintended for the XT, which was supplied with a straight-through control cable.

In the move to the 5170, IBM changed things. The hard drives were jumpered for the second drive-select position, and thus the control cable became:

Code: 
             D:                 C:
            +--+               +--+
------------|  |-----   -------|  |
            |  |     \ /       |  |
   CONTROL  |  |      X        |  |
            |  |     / \       |  |
------------|  |-----   -------|  |
            +--+               +--+

You won't be able to modify the WD12's drive-select shunt block easily, in order to select the second drive-select position.
So, instead, try a straight-through control cable.

Alternatively, what you could try is connecting the WD12 to the drive D connector on the control cable. That's not the ideal solution because of possible signal reflection from the end connector.
Click to expand...

I don't have a straight through cable, but I did try your suggestion of putting the drive on the D connector on the control cable and moving the data cable over to Drive 2, now I get a different error message just about a bad controller and not a bad disc, so who knows.
 
lyonadmiral said:
I don't have a straight through cable, but I did try your suggestion of putting the drive on the D connector on the control cable and moving the data cable over to Drive 2, now I get a different error message just about a bad controller and not a bad disc, so who knows.
Click to expand...
I didn't say anything about moving the data cable. It needs to stay on J4.

By moving the WD12 to the first connector on the control cable, you are in effect connecting your WD12 via a straight-through cable. And that's all we wanted to do.

Even when you put the data cable back to J4, and have WD12 on the first connector of control cable, I'm not expecting your drive to burst into life. Refer to post #8. Correct cabling/jumpering is only the first step.

It is almost certain that the 5170 controller is not going to 'understand' the existing low-level format that has been applied to the WD12, and consequently, you are going to need to low-level format the WD12 using the 5170 controller. In post #8 is a pointer to a low-level format procedure suitable for the 5170's supplied controller.
 
However, a blank/unreadable drive doesn't result in a 1701 POST error--that's mostly due to a bad drive or messed up installation.

But Modem7's right--you want to use a "flat" cable if the first drive select is jumpered. It will also prevent you from making the error of using a floppy cable (which has a completely different "twist" on the distal end)--even if you've got a floppy cable, the "flat" section is still the same.
 
So I Moved the data cable back onto J4, the disk drive did start making some noise, it sounds like the heads might be stuck, I saw a gear of some kind on the front left bottom (facing the faceplate) of the drive moving very slowly then back and again.
 
lyonadmiral said:
So I Moved the data cable back onto J4, the disk drive did start making some noise, it sounds like the heads might be stuck, I saw a gear of some kind on the front left bottom (facing the faceplate) of the drive moving very slowly then back and again.
Click to expand...
That sounds like something connnected to the stepper. If so, its position reflects the cylinder that the heads are on. During a low-level format, we expect that to move slowly from one extreme to the other. Was it during a low-level format that you saw it moving slowly?

Are you still seeing a 17xx series error on power up of the 5170? If so, what is it? You need to be exact.
 
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