Partial/full cleanup of harddrive on 5160 XT: what are my options?

[ilyaz]

Keeping us in the dark will not help you one little bit! How do we know what type of monitor you're after if you don't give us a clue as to what type of video card is in that machine? Of course, I have a multisync which doesn't care about the video card but not all monitors are so user friendly.

Good point! Since I am not well versed in XT components, I've uploaded a few photos + a short video of the machine booting to here

If these are not detailed enough to see what sort of monitor is needed, I can dig deeper + take more photos. May need guidance on which specific card to look at.

Thx

 

[Stone]

It looks like a CGA card.

 

[SpidersWeb]

As Stone mentioned, looks to be CGA and with composite out - you could just use a TV in the short term. Single RCA lead to the Video port of a TV or VCR.

Keyboard is the tricky one, as you'll need an XT keyboard. Same plug as an AT keyboard, but different protocol.

 

[Agent Orange]

Well, we are not talking about a hard drive with highly sensitive data here. A low-level format is more than enough. Also, afaik, a simple software solution wouldn't be enough to recover data from a hdd that has been low-level formated. You would need some special hardware interface that takes direct control of the hdd's heads - and that is unlikely to still exist for such old MFM/RLL drives.

That's why I would write zeros to it - cheap and efficient fix.

 

[ilyaz]

As Stone mentioned, looks to be CGA and with composite out - you could just use a TV in the short term. Single RCA lead to the Video port of a TV or VCR.

Keyboard is the tricky one, as you'll need an XT keyboard. Same plug as an AT keyboard, but different protocol.

Thanks. So the video card with the RCA connector is the 3rd from the right, correct? Is it possible to tell from the photos what the other 6 cards are?

So guess I will be looking for a keyboard instead of a monitor... :D

 

[SpidersWeb]

Well we can't positively ID without closeup shots of the cards, but from what I can see left to right:

25 pin serial port
15 pin joystick/game card
Floppy drive adapter
Hard Drive controller (connected to a 10MB ST412)
15 pin joystick/game card
CGA with composite out
and the last card takes up two back plates, I'd take a stab at that being an aftermarket 384KB RAM+serial+parallel combo card.

Equipment appears to be mostly original/genuine.

 

[ilyaz]

Well we can't positively ID without closeup shots of the cards, but from what I can see left to right:

25 pin serial port
15 pin joystick/game card
Floppy drive adapter
Hard Drive controller (connected to a 10MB ST412)
15 pin joystick/game card
CGA with composite out
and the last card takes up two back plates, I'd take a stab at that being an aftermarket 384KB RAM+serial+parallel combo card.

Equipment appears to be mostly original/genuine.

Great thanks much!

 

[Chuck(G)]

Why not use a bulk eraser as used for mag tape? They are pretty ferocious things, will cause serious upsets to mechanical wrist watches. Only real snag is whether the drive will fit between the poles, about 1.1/2" or so.

The field of a mag tape bulk eraser drops off pretty rapidly with distance. I don't know that this would work.

 

[Chuck(G)]

FWIW: Once upon a time while employed by a large US Government agency, I had some computer forensic responsibilities. It was not considered okay to simply format a hard drive, low level or otherwise. The entire disk had to be written to, or zeroed, prior to disposal. The average person normally isn't privy to higher level data recovery software (both - government and bad guys), but trust me, it's out there.

A LLF does completely overwrite an MFM hard drive--from index to index--AMs, data, CRCs and gaps. Nobody's going to recover anything from the hard disk after that.

 

[Agent Orange]

A LLF does completely overwrite an MFM hard drive--from index to index--AMs, data, CRCs and gaps. Nobody's going to recover anything from the hard disk after that.

In some sections of the government, paranoia reigns. If it were all that simple, old HD's wouldn't have their platters sanded, folded in quarters, then smelted.

 

[KC9UDX]

Why not use a bulk eraser as used for mag tape? They are pretty ferocious things, will cause serious upsets to mechanical wrist watches. Only real snag is whether the drive will fit between the poles, about 1.1/2" or so.

If you had one strong enough (I do), there's a good chance of accidentally magnetising parts of the drive.