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IBM XT - HDD problem

dongfeng said:
Is there a part or version number on it?
Click to expand...

There's a handwritten S/N on the component side (42-2694), and a few numbers on the solder side (see photos), but that's it for numbers. One of them (0285-00) might be a model, part or revision number.

Are there manuals available anywhere for these things?

Xebec - back side1.JPG

Xebec - back side2.JPG
 
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It's definitely not IBM--I'm sitting here with the twin of Lorne's board (S/N 43-3755) that I bought from a Fremont (CA) outfit called "Spartan" in 1986. It sticks in my mind because they gave away a free ST506 as a sales gimmick. Naturally, you couldn't use the 506 with the Xebec controller as-is, because the 506 doesn't have buffered seek. But I patched the BIOS to perform a slow (3 ms/cylinder) seek and I used the 506 for a couple of years successfully.

Mine has a date stamp on the solder side of "Jun 23 1985". If you look to the right of the component-side serial number, on the the other side of the large Xebec-branded IC, there should be a part and revision number. Mine is 104836-04 Rev C-06.

My board still has the patched EPROM and I still have the 506. I don't recall, but I believe that I had to write a formatter, at least for the 506. I probably still have it somewhere. I may still have the manual for the thing.
 
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Got my Seagate ST-225 in todays mail.

That's not bad.
$ 45 including shipping for a new old stock HDD, and it arrives on a Wednesday after ordering it on a Sunday.
The warranty sticker on the HDD says the warranty expires 11-9-96. 1996? I'm surprised they were still making them then. I can't see the warranty having been anything more than 3 months, maybe a year max.

The drive is bare (see below). IE: no face plate.
The face plate on the Miniscribe mounts differently than one for the Seagate looks like it would, so I can't transfer the other one to the ST-225.

Has anyone got a spare face plate (that they will sell me) that mounts (somehow) onto an ST-225 ?

Thanks.

Seagate ST-225.JPG
 
Then again....
I hooked up the drive, powered up the system and tried to do an Fdisk.
"Error Reading Fixed Disk" was the reply.
Hooked up the old Miniscribe, and it worked fine, so it's not the connections.

Should a NOS Segate HDD have a sticker on it from Fessenden Technologies listing the Error Map?
I'm thinking maybe this isn't really NOS.

I might have answered my own question - a web search shows Fessenden Technologies as "Monitor and hard drive depot repair services".

It's time to get back to the Ebay seller.
 
Since you don't know where the ST-225 came from or what controller it was last used with, you do need to do a low-level format before an FDISK/FORMAT. You have to establish the basic physical format before you read and write to it.
 
ahh, the old miniscribes, i have one that is 40mb, returns read errors sometimes, i whack it and all is right in the world :) and i've gotten the error codes out of a CMI 20mb occassionally, found out it was being caused by a seperate add-in card..
 
Chuck(G) said:
Since you don't know where the ST-225 came from or what controller it was last used with, you do need to do a low-level format before an FDISK/FORMAT. You have to establish the basic physical format before you read and write to it.
Click to expand...

I just finished reading a bunch about LLF, so yes, it looks like I need to do that.

I've found stuff that says I can do a LLF from Debug using g=C800:5 and another saying g=C800:3.

I've tried both, and they both just hang.

I read something else that said: "The earliest HDD controllers for the IBM PC (the Xebec) did not have a LL format routine in the cards BIOS, the LL format was on the Advanced Diagnostics Disk! Typing the g=C800:5 command without the disk would just hang the computer, forcing a reset."

Hanging is what mine's doing and I don't have the "Advanced" diagnostics disk, just the regular diagnostics disk.

I've looked on the web, in this forum, and in my DOS & GTO manuals, and I can't find stuff about how to do a low level format. Where is this info? Hiding?


ATTN: others looking at purchasing one of these should note that the Seagate ST-225 is not NOS. The Ebay seller said "We saw the original style wrapper and thought it was new". The original style wrapper being referred to, is the silver anti-static plastic bag that you get boards and other parts in. You can see old label residue on the HDD where labels have been removed, and new different labels have been applied. It's just old, it's not new old stock.
 
Lorne said:
I've looked on the web, in this forum, and in my DOS & GTO manuals, and I can't find stuff about how to do a low level format. Where is this info? Hiding?
Click to expand...
SpeedStor software will perform a low-level format with Xebec and Xebec-made-for-IBM controllers.
Get it from http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/software.htm
In SpeedStor, the low-level format functionality is termed 'initialize' (from the main menu choose MANUALSETUP then INITIALIZE).
 
Lorne said:
I've found stuff that says I can do a LLF from Debug using g=C800:5 and another saying g=C800:3.

I've tried both, and they both just hang.

I read something else that said: "The earliest HDD controllers for the IBM PC (the Xebec) did not have a LL format routine in the cards BIOS, the LL format was on the Advanced Diagnostics Disk! Typing the g=C800:5 command without the disk would just hang the computer, forcing a reset."
Click to expand...

Yes, I tried a low level format with my IBM AT the same way with the same result. In the end someone (modem7, ChuckG, Paul...I can't remember exactly who...or maybe they all did!) sent me a link to a low-level formatting program for the beast.

Good luck with it all.

Tez
 
BINGO !

Thank you modem7.

The drive was initialized, then Fdisk'd, and formatted and now it works fine.
(I guess I should probably have run the Defect Manager in there at some point, huh?)

It still isn't new old stock, but it works, and for $ 45 incl shipping I am happy.
I'd be happier if I'd learned my lesson that if a deal looks too good to be true that it probably is, but that doesn't seem to have happened yet. $ 45 for a new unused HDD? No, it's not going to happen.

I'm going to start a thread titled "Low Level Format", and deposit some of what I've learned during this process in that thread, so others can hopefully find the info easier than I did.
Others with knowledge on the subject are encouraged to add to the info, because there's absolute crap info out there on the web about how to do LLF on an MFM drive (from what I could find anyway).

Thanks a bunch guys.
 
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