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Hard Disk Bad Clusters

aesis said:
Now it seems to work differently, saying that in four minutes would have done this, and at this time is performing "SCANNING MEDIA, PLEASE WAIT" arrived at 390 Cylinder of 615 and two hours have passed since he began this process.
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No, you don't want a disk "scan". That only reads the disk, and we already know there is a problem there. The menu is quite confusing, if I recall correctly the menu item is labeled "initialize".

It might be worth double checking the jumpers on your hard drive controller card. Exactly what model of hard disk controller card is this? (if you can't tell then post a picture) What are the current jumper or switch settings on the card?

Also according to this: http://bk0010.narod.ru/DRIVESPECS/MINISCRIBE/2709.txt.html the parameters for the Miniscribe M8425 should be:
Cylinders - 615
Heads - 4
Sector/track - 17
Precompensation - 65535 (none)
 
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Bad ..
After the operation I went to format always with SpeedStor excluding bad clusters (almost 50%) but 25% of the operation leaves the format "error (0x10) bad ECC on disk read"
I tried to reformat it again and now comes "error (0x40)"
Now I do not do more to format, if I leave the program lose the work performed on the damaged cluster??

IMG_4799.jpgIMG_4800.jpg
 
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Well, I'm not sure what else to suggest. It sort of sounds like Speedstor may not be fully recognizing the controller. But it also sounds like that hard drive may be getting worse. Do you hear any screeching or odd noises while it is running?

There is a manual for your controller here: http://www.olivettim24.hadesnet.org/docs/wd1002a-wx1.pdf

According to that, the debug method should work fine. You might just give the debug method one more try. I actually ran in to a problem the other day where g=c800:5 would fail to run the formatter sort of like what you described. Still not sure exactly what the issue was but I resolved it by using a different boot disk with a different version of DOS. Just something to try.
 
aesis said:
I stopped the process, I tried to make the DEBUG but remains blocked.
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You need to provide more information for us to help you. When you type "debug" (and ONLY the word "debug") at the DOS prompt, what happens? If it says "file not found", then find a diskette with debug.com on it.

If debug loads, then type g=c800:5 and hit ENTER and that should get you the controller menu.
 
First of all thank you for the help you are giving me, and for the time they dedicated to me.
Yesterday I did the formatting to DEBUG
DEBUG
G = C800: 5
I did the formatting and eventually told me re restart the pc, then I wanted to do FDISK but does not work tells me this error message:
"Error in hard disk read"
 
If you want to know how does my hard disk watch this video, it behaves perfectly as this Hard Disk seems that this video I've done it myself to my Miniscribe with the difference that this is a 8438 while the mine is 8425...
When I format at low speed the head moves forward step by step with no turning back as it does in this video, then to 1/4 (rotation of the head) tour progresses and occasionally returns to the base as it does this but when it comes to 2/4 around the head and always makes a step back, and so until the end of the operation of the disc.

P.S: Even the sounds are identical to the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG9LuCkqWJY
 
With this silence you answered me that the disk has no remedy and is to throw it?
Since I have no elements as to throw my PC I found a Hard Disk Seagate 325X 21MB but it is IDE, and I should get an ISA-IDE card instead of my ISA-MFM.
My pc is able to recognize the ISA-IDE adapter Hard Disk Seagate?
 
That is the correct command. I linked to the card's manual above. I'd be tempted to try it on another machine, but if none of the above could get it working then I'm fairly sure the drive is toast.
 
I have a PC 386 with DOS 6 and Windows 3.11, and I tried to connect the ISA card with Miniscribe 8425 but the BIOS does not recognize me the hard disk...
Motherboard is SARC M326 V3.1
 
Well I suppose SomeGuy is right, this is for a different card, but I'll see if I can explain what I meant anyway - I tried formatting my drive with "G=C800:5" or similar, but it did not work. I had to enter the following in order:

- a 100
xxxx:0100 mov ax,705
xxxx:0103 mov cx,1
xxxx:0106 mov dx,80
xxxx:0109 int 13
xxxx:010B int 3
xxxx:010C <----- at this line just press the [ENTER] key - this will return DEBUG's dash prompt
- g=100
- f cs:1000 1200 00 (comment: this sets 512 bytes starting at address 1000h to zero)
- a 100
xxxx:0100 mov ah,0
xxxx:0102 mov dl,80
xxxx:0104 int 13
xxxx:0106 mov ax,301
xxxx:0109 mov bx,1000
xxxx:010C mov cx,1
xxxx:010F mov dx,80
xxxx:0112 int 13
xxxx:0114 int 3
xxxx:0115 <----- at this line just press the [ENTER] key - this will return DEBUG's dash prompt
- g=100
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From this webpage: IBM/Xebec HDD Controller - Low-Level Format Via DEBUG
 
Thanks for the help Caleb Hansberry but I have a resulting XT IBM and I have this controller card but I have 2 different .., we will have 2 although I always formatted with WD1002A-WX1 card.
I also have a LONGSHINE LCS-6210D card but I have not formatted with this since I do not think it's a formatting issue, at least I think ..
However formatting using DEBUG works but the problem is when finished makes me restart the computer and then having to make the partition with FDISK tells me "error reading the disk"
 
One thing to double check - I have seen a few instances where a controller will complete an LLF and then FDISK will still fail but the HD was not bad. In those cases the smaller data cable was either not connected, connected backwards, or connected to the wrong header on the controller.

Since it was somewhat reading before, that is probably not it, but never understate the power of a loose cable.

And if you do try it on a different computer with a completely different controller - just one thing to keep in mind is that the low level formats between controller models of MFM/RLL cards are usually incompatible. So when you move from one controller to another of a different model, your hard drive will always appear unformatted and require a fresh LLF. That is normal.
 
I can also do this by formatting the test with DEBUG and the LONGSHINE card that I never did.
In that case I can replace my hard drive with another that has the IDE-SCSI attack even replacing the ISA-IDE card with one I-ISA MFM?
My PC would recognize or do I have to replace hard disk with another always with MFM attack?
Thank you.
 
A very stupid question--but you are not using a floppy cable for the 34-conductor one, are you? The "twist" is not the same in an MFM cable as it is for a floppy.

Of course, the 20 conductor cable is always single-drive "flat".
 
I have a floppy drive and rightly has a flat cable 34-pin IDE, excuse me but I can not figure out exactly what you want me to understand ..

P.S: The fault is mine that I unfortunately do not have much familiarity with English and using Google Translate is not always clear what I read translated. :cry:
 
aesis said:
I have a floppy drive and rightly has a flat cable 34-pin IDE, excuse me but I can not figure out exactly what you want me to understand ..

P.S: The fault is mine that I unfortunately do not have much familiarity with English and using Google Translate is not always clear what I read translated. :cry:
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MFM drives need a different cable than floppy drives. Sometimes, people have installed the wrong cable. Chuck(G) suggests you double check the cable. If you are not certain, take a picture of the MFM 34-pin cable between the drive connectors.

I am having a hard time trying to describe the difference between the cables. I am sure someone can recognize it from a picture.
 
krebizfan said:
I am having a hard time trying to describe the difference between the cables. I am sure someone can recognize it from a picture.
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Since one picture is worth a thousand words...

floppy_vs_hard.jpg


Kudos to modem7.
 
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