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Dos 3.3 Question / Dos 5.0 Question

Stone said:
That won't work. Spinrite only works on recognizable partitions. If you can't read a drive with DOS you can't run Spinrite on it.
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Sure it will, I have done it before with the version I have. It's on my website. The only thing is that you have to boot the computer with a known good DOS disk, then you run spinrite. I guess you could also try an Advanced Diagnostics disk to test the controller card.
 
I should note that back in the day I getting drives up and running was always a challenge. Did you verify the drive is "stiction" free.
 
billdeg said:
Sure it will, I have done it before with the version I have. It's on my website. The only thing is that you have to boot the computer with a known good DOS disk, then you run spinrite. I guess you could also try an Advanced Diagnostics disk to test the controller card.
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What version are you referring to? I use Spinrite II v2.0 which is specifically for MFM/RLL. And it *only* works on a valid partition, one partition at a time.
 
Me too. I must be mistaken but I thought for sure I remembered using it to diagnose an unpartitioned drive. Maybe we're talking about different things. I would have to get it all set up to verify, I assume you have a system on hand that says otherwise. In short, I could very well be wrong. :)
 
billdeg said:
Me too. I must be mistaken but I thought for sure I remembered using it to diagnose an unpartitioned drive. Maybe we're talking about different things. I would have to get it all set up to verify, I assume you have a system on hand that says otherwise. In short, I could very well be wrong. :)
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Don't take my word on it. This is from SPININFO.EXE:

* * * * * * * *
SpinRite operates on one partition at a time. If your system contains more than a single hard disk partirion, SpinRite will display a list of available partitions from which you may choose.
* * * * * * * *
Go ahead -- read it for yourself.

Spininfo.exe will even display correctly on a newer, Windows system. No need for you to set up a system. Steve Gibson's word should be good enough. :)

Besides, I've personally used SpinRite many, many times and am thoroughly familiar with it.

Believe me, If it would have been able to access otherwise *dead* MFM drives I would have used it on the stack I have in the corner. Don't think I haven't tried this (many years ago). :)
 
Smack2k said:
Booted up to DOS 6.22....ran debug and did the LLF format according to Minus Zero Degrees Site...it worked fine. Did the Zero Data in the first sector...it worked fine....both according to http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/ibm_xebec/ibm_xebec_llf_debug.htm.

Rebooted and tried to run FDISK - Got an Error Reading Fixed Disk

..

I dont get a 1701 on boot and the LLF only took a few minutes to run
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Bios LLF programs can be quite "dumb". They don't always tell you when something has gone wrong.

But if you are not getting a 1701 error now, that should mean the controller is at least seeing "something" on the drive and should be connected right.

Since minuszerodegrees says that card is compatible with SpeedStor I'd give that a try. SpeedStor is a very robust program and should let you know in detail if it runs in to a problem.
 
Most of the *dead* MFM drives I have will go right along with an attempt to LLF them. But that's about it! They cannot be partitioned. I tend to think it's a Track Zero issue. I'm not even convinced they are actually being LLFed. The only sure thing is that FDISK can't read them, either before or after the attempted LLF.
 
Stone

Do you get any errors (1701) when you boot the dead MFM Drives, even though they will LLF?

I am not getting that error, but the rest seems right...when I type FDISK, it hits the HDD for one blink, then kicks back the error reading fixed disk error.

Havent done Speed Stor yet, but thinking its not gonna help and the drive is dead...
 
Something I have found out lately about MFM drives and controller combinations.

It was posted in quite a few threads that a lot of times a particular drive will only work with a particular controller.

To verify this I did a test on a few Seagate drives. 7 St-251-1 40 MB and 3 St-225 20 MB drives. I hooked up a DTC controller to my XT and tried to do a low level format. No dice on any of the drives.

Ok so I pulled the DTC and put in a WD1002-wx1 controller and tried doing an LLF and all but 3 went through. Then using a little program called WDFMT.EXE which did a type of LLF to the drives and all but the same 3 worked fine. I was able to do an FDISK and a FORMAT on those. Then I ran them on my AT which has a WD controller as well same thing happened. Thought it was weird that it worked the way it did.

So if you have a WD controller handy give it a shot might work.
 
Finally got a chance to try SSTOR.exe this weekend and check on the HDD.

I created a bootable floppy and put the SSTOR software on it, but it wouldnt boot to it, giving the normal error when a disk is in the drive on boot and not something the computer recognizes

So I booted from a DOS 6.22 boot disk and then put the SSTOR floppy in and ran SSTOR.exe. I got a Parity Check Error 1 and ?????? back when it ran and that was it.

As for other HD Controllers, the only other ones I have are newer, 16-Bit ISA Cards, which I am guessing will not work with the old ST-412 HDD...may have to find (buy or trade for) another HDD Controller to verify I guess.
 
Smack2k said:
I created a bootable floppy and put the SSTOR software on it, but it wouldnt boot to it, giving the normal error when a disk is in the drive on boot and not something the computer recognizes
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Then you *didn't* create a bootable floppy. :)


Smack2k said:
So I booted from a DOS 6.22 boot disk and then put the SSTOR floppy in and ran SSTOR.exe. I got a Parity Check Error 1 and ?????? back when it ran and that was it.
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Sounds like you have memory problems. Maybe a bad chip.
 
Smack2k said:
... I got a Parity Check Error 1 and ?????? back when it ran and that was it.
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Stone said:
Sounds like you have memory problems.
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I agree. It smacks of a RAM issue of some kind.

The RAM check done at machine power-on time is quite crude.

Make sure that you have no 'overlapping' RAM. That can cause strange symptoms.

In the IBM PC, motherboard RAM must be fully populated before RAM cards are added.
 
Stone said:
Then you *didn't* create a bootable floppy. :)


Sounds like you have memory problems. Maybe a bad chip.
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Not sure about the bootable disk, I formatted it and made it bootable...will have to check it again. format b: /f:360 /s

As for the hardware, I will be checking the RAM and see what comes up...could that cause my HDD issues as well? I dont see any RAM errors on POST or at any other time during loading a boot disk..
 
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Smack2k said:
Not sure about the bootable disk, I formatted it and made it bootable...will have to check it again. format b: /f:360 /s
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If it *were* a bootable disk the machine would have booted. :)

The /s command doesn't always do what it's supposed to do on all versions of DOS.

But if you now run SYS B: it will surely make that (or any) disk bootable.
 
What are my options for a HDD Controller for the 5160 with the MFM Hard Drive? I dont wanna pick up the wrong thing if I end up going that route.
 
Almost any 8-bit MFM controller should work. Just make sure it's not proprietary. Generally, WD controllers are common and widely used. As far as I can tell the controller you have hasn't really shown itself to be the problem. More likely than not the drive is at fault.
 
That is what I was afraid of...

So I made a bootable disk last night and the SSTOR files wont copy on, not enough disk space...I cant win.
 
You don't need all the files.

How much space is on the bootable disk without any sstor stuff?

I' not sure that sstor needs to be on the boot disk. Try it on it's own disk.
 
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