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

it whe n Ido that it just displays the partition for drive A not the hard disk

Sure that isn't just "status A"? Floppy disk drives shouldn't show up in FDisk at all. You should still try "format C: /s" from DOS. If there aren't any partitions, then you will just get an error message.

If the hard disk was undetectable, you should not even have been able to run FDisk at all.
 
when I enter the 1st option it says "No space to create a DOS partition" and when I do a low level format it only lasts a 5-7 minuets
 
Ok. First select 3 and delete the partition, then select option 1, then try format. Just to be sure, remove the floppy disk in the floppy drive after starting FDisk and before doing this.
 
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We have five pages of posts in this thread now, many of them just a single line.

I would strongly suggest using an instant messaging client or IRC and getting in touch with somebody who can help you step through your problems in real time. This really is not a great use of the forum; a summary of what was wrong after you find out would be great, but not these constant line by line updates.
 
OK, I can barely make that video out. But, it looks like you've got a non-DOS partition on the disk. I don't see (or can't read) the option for deleting a non-dos partition.

I haven't read the whole thread, but here's the basic steps for setting up a disk on a machine like this:

- Boot DOS from floppy, run debug and enter the low level format utility on the controller. After the disk is formatted, reboot (DOS caches the partition table in memory).
- Back in DOS, run FDISK to create a DOS partition. Reboot again.
- Back in DOS, you should now have a C: drive, but you won't be able to store files on it, since it's not formatted. Run format c: /s to format the drive and make it bootable.
- Take the disk out of the drive and reboot, the computer should boot from the hard drive.

What version of DOS are you using? DOS version 3.3 is what you'll probably want on that.

-Ian
 
Help with my IBM 5160 XT Hard Drive

Help with my IBM 5160 XT Hard Drive

Ok the other post was getting too long so here is whats up.

I have performed a low level format on my XT.
The method I used was found here http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/archive/index.php/t-1890.html

The format only lasted about 5 - 10 min.

Then I went in to fdisk and it says "There isn't enough space for a dos partition"

So my guess is that it is only formating a little bit of the drive.

Could someone help with this,

here is a video that I made

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC9CP9-TL4g
 
Please, do not create another thread for the same problem.

I moved the first post from the new thread here.
 

According to the video, your hard disk is properly found, but for some reason it thinks that something non-DOS is occupying it. In order to solve this, you can try to manually wipe the partition table on the very first sector of the hard disk drive. This can be done in Debug.

For example:
f cs:100 2000 00[enter]
a 100[enter]
jmp 0102[enter]
mov ah,00[enter]
mov dl,80[enter]
int 13h[enter]
mov ax,0310[enter]
mov bx,1000[enter]
xor cx,cx[enter]
mov dx,0080[enter]
int 13h[enter]
int 3[enter]
[enter]
g[enter]

Of course, NEVER EVER use this code on a recent computer unless you really want to reformat the HDD from scratch.

I also see that there are some BIOS extension which boots with some startup text. It's impossible to see what it is due to the video quality, but I take for granted that it's from a VGA card.
 
According to the video, your hard disk is properly found, but for some reason it thinks that something non-DOS is occupying it. In order to solve this, you can try to manually wipe the partition table on the very first sector of the hard disk drive. This can be done in Debug.

For example:
f cs:100 2000 00[enter]
a 100[enter]
jmp 0102[enter]
mov ah,00[enter]
mov dl,80[enter]
int 13h[enter]
mov ax,0310[enter]
mov bx,1000[enter]
xor cx,cx[enter]
mov dx,0080[enter]
int 13h[enter]
int 3[enter]
[enter]
g[enter]

Of course, NEVER EVER use this code on a recent computer unless you really want to reformat the HDD from scratch.

I also see that there are some BIOS extension which boots with some startup text. It's impossible to see what it is due to the video quality, but I take for granted that it's from a VGA card.

I just tried it, and same thing, Would I do this and then do the low level format?
Its a 20mb hard drive, and it is still showing that the size is 614 and it is a non-dos partition
 
I agree with per in that FDISK is reading the drive okay at the low level. So consider the low-level format to be succesfully completed.

And I agree that FDISK is not making sense of the contents of the partition table within the MBR (Master Boot Record - first sector on drive), and that wiping the MBR is the way forward.

I just tried it, and same thing,
I tried per's DEBUG code too and it didn't work for me either. Looking at it, I figured that it was because the starting sector was set to 0 instead of 1. The code worked for me when I then changed the "xor cx,cx" line to "mov cx,1". Give that a go.

After that, try FDISK again and hopefully you'll find that the non-DOS partition is gone when you use option [4]. For option [4], you are expecting FDISK (the DOS 2.1 version) to indicate "no partitions defined".

If that is the case, the sequence would then be:
a. Choose option [1]
b. When then asked the confirmation question, answer [Y]
c. Reboot from floppy.
d. At the A> prompt, enter FORMAT C: /S
e. At the "press any key ..." prompt, press the any key.
f. When formatting is complete, remove the floppy, then reboot the 5160.
 
To remove a non-dos partition from that drive using FDISK you will need to use a version of DOS greater than 4.01. As someone else mentioned, wiping the Master Boot Record might help (usage: a:\> fdisk /mbr ).

More to the point, is there any reason why you are using DOS 2.10? It was the first version that would support hard drives (and couldn't have a partition size bigger than 16MB). Make the effort to get at least version 3.1 (or even better, 3.3, which was the best DOS for the XT IMO).
 
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