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How Do I Perform a Low Level Format on A IBM 5160XT

Yeay! Good work! Glad to see it running... Ya I wasnt 100% sure the same debug statements work on his drive , but I do recall 15 years ago doing that on a 20+ mb seagate. :D
 
ahhh it still doesn't show up in fdisk
Did you see the hard drive light come on for a while?

I have to head off for many hours now, but when I get back I'll try the procedure on my 5160 (with IBM/Xebec card).
There may be something wrong with the code. For example, looking now, I can see that it's starting at cylinder 1. I thought it would need to start at cylinder 0.
 
yeah it went on for a while, it may have to start with cylinder 0, but its been at least 3 years since I coded in asm.

does anyone have any ideas?
 
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Exactly what does FDisk say? Does it greet you with an error, or is it just that no partition shows up?
 
I confirm that the DEBUG code works as is.

I grabbed my 5160 with IBM/Xebec hard drive controller. I substituted the hard drive with an ST-225 from an XT clone. As expected, the 5160 then failed to boot (different low-level format). Attempting to read sectors on the hard drive using Norton Disk Editor (in physical access mode) also failed.

Using a DOS 3.3 boot floppy, I then ran the DEBUG code, then FDISK, then FORMAT. 5160 now booting.

As an aside, puzzled about the 'cylinder 0' versus 'cylinder 1' thing, I tried the DEBUG code quite a few times alternating between CX=0 and CX=1. It always failed when set to zero (and required an off/on before the hard drive became responsive again). And so it appears that interrupt 13 function 7, as implemented on the IBM/Xebec card, uses 1 for the first cylinder.
 
I confirm that the DEBUG code works as is.

I grabbed my 5160 with IBM/Xebec hard drive controller. I substituted the hard drive with an ST-225 from an XT clone. As expected, the 5160 then failed to boot (different low-level format). Attempting to read sectors on the hard drive using Norton Disk Editor (in physical access mode) also failed.

Using a DOS 3.3 boot floppy, I then ran the DEBUG code, then FDISK, then FORMAT. 5160 now booting.

As an aside, puzzled about the 'cylinder 0' versus 'cylinder 1' thing, I tried the DEBUG code quite a few times alternating between CX=0 and CX=1. It always failed when set to zero (and required an off/on before the hard drive became responsive again). And so it appears that interrupt 13 function 7, as implemented on the IBM/Xebec card, uses 1 for the first cylinder.
So what do you reccomend I do?
 
how would I fix the corrupted sectors if there is any,
or is my problem not fixable and do I need to buy another hard disk

Well we still don't know if you even have a problem, or you just haven't figured out yet how to format on this particular machine.

Per asked if you don't have the option "1. Create Dos Partition" and your reply would suggest that you do. So, did you chose option 1?
 
1. Create Dos Partition
2. Change Active Partition
3. Delete Dos Partition
4. Display Partition Data

This suggests that you actually already have a partition on the drive, as some of the options you list wouldn't normally be there if you didn't (if I remember corectly). What happens if you select option 4?

The next step would be to format the partition. Use the command "format C: /s" in DOS to do this.
 
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