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Problems with Seagate ST-412

4

404TimeNotFound

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2014
Messages
54
Location
Fort Wayne, IN
Good evening (at least where I am) everyone,

I recently purchased a used Seagate ST-412 for my IBM 5160 which was in need of a replacement to the ST-225 that died awhile back. I installed said drive earlier today and powered the system up, the drive spun up with no problems that I can tell, and the LED blinked once for a split-second, then the system proceeded to boot into DOS 3.3 from the disk drive. I am not able to access drive C: through the usual commands, and when trying to run FDISK the LED blinks for a split second followed by "Error reading fixed disk". I am using a WD1002s-WX2 controller which came with the system instead of the original controller it would have came with. I guess the question to ask now is am I not doing something right whether it be how I installed it, how I've connected it, or something else? Help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advanced.
 
404TimeNotFound said:
I recently purchased a used Seagate ST-412 for my IBM 5160 which was in need of a replacement to the ST-225 that died awhile back. I installed said drive earlier today and powered the system up, the drive spun up with no problems that I can tell, and the LED blinked once for a split-second, then the system proceeded to boot into DOS 3.3 from the disk drive.
Click to expand...
The booting suggests to me that the cabling is correct.

404TimeNotFound said:
I am not able to access drive C: through the usual commands, and when trying to run FDISK the LED blinks for a split second followed by "Error reading fixed disk". I am using a WD1002s-WX2 controller which came with the system instead of the original controller it would have came with. I guess the question to ask now is am I not doing something right whether it be how I installed it, how I've connected it, or something else? Help would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...
If I was in your position, I would pretend that the ST-412 is 'blank' (as it came from the factory), and go through the required initialisation steps to get the drive booting to DOS.

Step 1: Via the jumpers, reconfigure the WD1002S-WX2 for 'ST-412' operation (presently, the jumpers will be set for 'ST-225')
Step 2: With the ST-412 attachd to the WD1002S-WX2, low-level format the ST-412.
Step 3: Create a DOS partition.
Step 4: High-level format the partition.

Re step 1. Jumper configuration is shown on page 7-2 in the WD1002S-WX2 manual at [here]. So, no jumpers on positions 3 and 4 of SW1.

Re step 2. Section 7.1 on page 7-1 in the above manual.

Re steps 3 and 4: The procedure is at [here].
 
So I managed to get ahold of some PC-DOS 2.10 diskettes, the low-level format worked fine, but when I attempted to run FDISK and create a primary partition I received yet again "Error reading fixed disk." Any ideas on what to do next?
 
404TimeNotFound said:
So I managed to get ahold of some PC-DOS 2.10 diskettes, the low-level format worked fine, but when I attempted to run FDISK and create a primary partition I received yet again "Error reading fixed disk." Any ideas on what to do next?
Click to expand...
The low-level format should have taken about a minute or two, and during that time, you should have seen the stepper motor's arm slowly move.
Did that happen?

st412_cyl_0.jpg
st412_cyl_319.jpg



If so, try using SpeedStor software to do a read test of the drive's sectors at the low-level. (navigation: [Diagnostics][ReadTest])

404TimeNotFound said:
Also on a side note, does the Seagate ST-412 have the Autopark function or not?
Click to expand...
Not.
 
404TimeNotFound said:
... the low-level format worked fine, but when I attempted to run FDISK and create a primary partition I received yet again "Error reading fixed disk." Any ideas on what to do next?
Click to expand...
This is a not too uncommon symptom of a hosed hard drive. Sometimes it's just the nature of the beast when you're dealing with 30 year old MFM drives.
 
I ran SpeedStor and the hard disk has ten defects on the following,

Head 0
Cyl 292
Cyl 356
Cyl 462
Cyl 528
Cyl 543

Head 1
Cyl 25
Cyl 41
Cyl 184
Cyl 491
Cyl 596
 
404TimeNotFound said:
I ran SpeedStor and the hard disk has ten defects on the following, ...
Click to expand...
An ST-412 has approximately 300 cylinders. Your list shows cylinders over that.

I think the most likely explanation is that your WD1002S-WX2 card is not configured for an ST-412. Did you perform 'Step 1' of the steps listed in post #2 of this thread?
 
Yes I believe I configured them right, according to the chart a Seagate ST412 has no jumpers installed on locations 3 and 4 if its drive 0, or 1 and 2 if its drive 1. But to clarify, Jumpers on locations W1-W7 are all at the standard setting, and there are no jumpers on SW1.
 
I also noticed it's only showing errors on 2 heads, you'd expect a couple on heads 2 and 3 if there was that many on the first two.
I wonder if it's configured for 612 cylinders with 2 heads, instead of 306 cylinders with 4 heads?
 
SpidersWeb said:
I also noticed it's only showing errors on 2 heads, you'd expect a couple on heads 2 and 3 if there was that many on the first two.
I wonder if it's configured for 612 cylinders with 2 heads, instead of 306 cylinders with 4 heads?
Click to expand...
If the OP answers in the affirmative to my question, then yes, ensuring that the rejumpering was done properly is one thing to look into. Another, is BIOS revision on the card. The manual that I pointed to shows the drive tables for 3 revisions of BIOS (62-000042-01, 62-000042-11, 62-000042-12). Maybe the OP's card has a different BIOS, with a different drive table (and requiring different jumper settings).
 
Sorry for the late response, yes I believe I have it configured correctly. Jumpers W1-7 are all at their default settings, and according to the chart (at least I think) I should have no jumpers installed on switch 1.
 
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