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Arche Rival 286 help with hdd needed

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ppieczul

Experienced Member
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Jun 20, 2018
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Poland
Hi
I have arche rival 286 motherboard with WD1003-WA2 controller.
It works fine with FDDs both 3.5” and 5.25” but I can’t make it work with MFM HDD.
It basically waits in bios on booting a couple of minutes and reports hdd initialization error.
I tried two controllers (same model) and two drives ST-255 and ST-251-1.
I set bios hdd setting according to the disk spec.

Any hints what I am missing? Also motherboard spec with jumper settings would be very good to have.

Thanks
Pawel
 
You probably need to do a Low Level Format on each drive.

Have you run Fdisk? It might just need a good partition.
 
Fdisk does not start with error reading hard disk.
I tried running ibm advanced diagnostics but it just hangs.
Any hint where to take the low level format program from?
Thanks
Pawel
 
For a WD controller you can try firing up debug and then type g=c800:5

Also there might be a format in bios/cmos setup. I had a 386 that would do a low level format that way, unless it was an IDE drive. Even then sometimes it would fake it.
 
I don’t think AT controllers do, but maybe some of the aftermarket or clone stuff does? I don’t know. I was too poor for a 286 back in the day and when I got enough money for a used one I was able to get a 386 instead. :)
 
Because this isn’t an AT. It’s a clone. I figured it was worth the 5 seconds to try it even if it’s wrong.
 
ppieczul said:
Hi
I have arche rival 286 motherboard with WD1003-WA2 controller.
It works fine with FDDs both 3.5” and 5.25” but I can’t make it work with MFM HDD.
It basically waits in bios on booting a couple of minutes and reports hdd initialization error.
I tried two controllers (same model) and two drives ST-255 and ST-251-1.
I set bios hdd setting according to the disk spec.

Any hints what I am missing? Also motherboard spec with jumper settings would be very good to have.

Thanks
Pawel
Click to expand...
Pawel and others - does anyone have any details on the manufacturer/name of the ARCHE RIVAL 286 motherboard? I just have a PAT-7.2A as a reference for the top corner. Some people think it is made by TMC but I haven't been able to get a match. Thanks in advance.
 
Chuck(G), the HDD that came with the ARCHE RIVAL 286 is a Seagate ST-251 and it's a beast. In the rear of the HDD, there is a jumper on the edge, the left side furthest away from the molex power input. See pic. The HDD connects to a very long 16 bit controller card, an adaptec ACB-2310/12 418906-03, Rev A. That controller card has pin inputs to accept what I believe is at least one HDD, a 5.25, and a 3.5 and another drive. See pic. Hope the pics help someone.
 

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If it was me I'd switch out the multi i/o card , with fdd, hdd, lpt, serial and game ports, with a more modern one, winbond or similar, and go the ide hdd route. Along with xt-ide rom in a nic rootrom socket.
 
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Yeah. Chances are that if it's a mass-market ST412 interface hard disk, it's probably been pinin' for the fjords. Stuff deteriorates and may not be salvageable. Operating MFM/RLL hard drives are getting rarer and will only continue to do so. I suppose there's a tiny market for an MFM emulator, but don't look at me.
 
An emulator already exists, and it actually goes both ways, it can pretend to be a drive and it can stand in for a controller and read drives so it can emulate them too. Good for a rare system that has a mostly working drive, but you might not have a good way to replace it. A little pricey for the PC crowed when XT-IDE is so cheap.

 
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