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Kalok Model KL 320 - Copy Data

Jeff2016

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2016
Messages
66
Location
Indianapolis, Indiana
Hi,

I am searching for information on a Kalok Model KL 320 disk drive that was in a computer used by my uncle. My uncle has passed and the computer was disposed of. I was given the drive and the controller board yesterday in hopes that I could recover genealogy information from it. (I don't know if the drive still functions, or not.)

I have the original IBM 8088 computer I bought in 1983 (with two floppy drives); but, I no longer have the IBM models from the later part of the '80s.

Can anyone tell me what options there are for accessing the disk drive to copy data? Is my only option to install the drive in an older system? I have used Granite Digital's drive copy hardware for SATA and IDE drives; but, I'm at a loss to come up with a plan for this drive.

Here's a link to a web page I found for the hard drive: http://archive.hmvh.net/txtfiles/hdd/KL320-3.MAN.txt

I have done some searching today; but, I haven't found anything helpful.

Thanks for any help that you can offer.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
Well so long as the controller card is the EXACT one that the drive was attached to for all these years you have a very good chance of recovering your data. Unintentionally I guess you could say the early double cable MFM/RLL disks implimented DRM in that if you lost that controller the odds were you would never get the drive's contents back.
Anyways, it should work in your 5150 as long as it is not the original revision motherboard which lacked hard disk support (it's not that common these days to come across one but they do show up from time to time so, we'll never know). You should if I recall be able to just plug the controller and drive in and it will boot.

Now that I got your hopes however, I do have to deliver a reality check.
Kalok hard drives are famous for their unreliability. They were cheap and thus they were a popular seller. I'd give you a 50/50 chance of the drive being readable at all.
 
Which controller do you have? Some controllers were 8-bit ISA; some controllers were 16-bit ISA (more fingers with a notch partway through); some controllers were for systems that did not follow the IBM PC concepts. 8-bit ISA should work in your 8088 machine. Then, if the hard drive works, you have the problem of transferring data to a new system. Most current systems lack the ability to handle 5.25" floppies and don't have serial or parallel ports for cable connections.

Where are you located? It could be expensive if you need an old computer and some form of data interchange to your modern system. Maybe someone local would be able to lend what is needed.
 
Hi NeXT,

Well so long as the controller card is the EXACT one that the drive was attached to for all these years you have a very good chance of recovering your data. Unintentionally I guess you could say the early double cable MFM/RLL disks implimented DRM in that if you lost that controller the odds were you would never get the drive's contents back.
Anyways, it should work in your 5150 as long as it is not the original revision motherboard which lacked hard disk support (it's not that common these days to come across one but they do show up from time to time so, we'll never know). You should if I recall be able to just plug the controller and drive in and it will boot.

Now that I got your hopes however, I do have to deliver a reality check.
Kalok hard drives are famous for their unreliability. They were cheap and thus they were a popular seller. I'd give you a 50/50 chance of the drive being readable at all.

Thanks for the quick reply!

The reliability was something that I was concerned about as I searched this morning.

I will need to get the IBM system out of storage and plug the card and the drive in.

(As I'll mention in my next reply, transferring data is my second concern (if the drive and controller work).

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
Since you have the drive and controller just plug them in and see if they work. If the drive is hosed it wouldn't make any sense to pursue this venture any further. But, if it works, you'll surely be able to come up with some method to get the data from it. First things first. :)
 
Hi krebizfan,

Which controller do you have? Some controllers were 8-bit ISA; some controllers were 16-bit ISA (more fingers with a notch partway through); some controllers were for systems that did not follow the IBM PC concepts. 8-bit ISA should work in your 8088 machine. Then, if the hard drive works, you have the problem of transferring data to a new system. Most current systems lack the ability to handle 5.25" floppies and don't have serial or parallel ports for cable connections.

Where are you located? It could be expensive if you need an old computer and some form of data interchange to your modern system. Maybe someone local would be able to lend what is needed.

Thanks for your reply, too!

The controller is a "WDC 60-000156-02 XO" as identified by printing on the board. There is another paper tag on the board with the following information:

61000222-06 F300
222066038 25885
8452263 REV. "12"

It appears that this is an 8-bit card based on your description; but, I'm not certain.

I am in Indianapolis. I appreciate what you're saying about the price point for trying to pull data from the drive.

I believe I still have an operational system that has both a 5-1/2 and a 3-1/2 floppy drives, and I also have a 3-1/2 external USB drive that I can use.... all contingent upon the drive working.

Thanks again for your help.

Jeff
 
Hi Stone,

Since you have the drive and controller just plug them in and see if they work. If the drive is hosed it wouldn't make any sense to pursue this venture any further. But, if it works, you'll surely be able to come up with some method to get the data from it. First things first. :)

I agree...

Thanks,

Jeff
 
Hi Guys,

Well, here's the deal.

1. I don't have a monitor with a 9-pin connector. I'm hoping that a neighbor has one.

2. I have installed the hard drive interface card and plugged in both connectors from the interface card.

3. I removed the 4-pin power connector from one of the floppy drives (Drive A according to the IBM manual) and connected it to the hard drive.

4. I powered on the computer. There was a single beep and hard drive activity, and then approximately 30 seconds later there were several other beeps. (Without a display I have no idea what is being communicated to the monitor.) There was no other noise or drive activity after that.

I hope these don't sound like newbie questions; but, here are some thoughts....

A. The IBM manual that I have doesn't reference hard drive settings with respect to dipswitch settings on the motherboard. (How can I tell if this motherboard is compatible with a hard drive?)

B. The IBM manual refers to floppy drives A and B. If I have one floppy drive powered does it need to be the A drive position, or does it not make a difference?

C. With the hard drive and controller installed, do one of the floppy drives need to be disconnected in order for the hard drive to be recognized?

I added some memory to this computer back in the mid 80's... can't say a lot of this came back to me as I have been working through this.

Thanks again, guys, for all your advice.

Take Care,

Jeff
 
You really need a monitor before we continue to troubleshoot this. The beeps are probably a BIOS error to do with the fact you disconnected the power to one of the floppy drives; but without the error code who knows. The single beep when you turn on the PC is a GOOD sign though; it means it is alive.

You do not need to disconnect the floppy drives in order to boot from the hard drive. The computer will first attempt to boot from the first floppy drive ( A: ) and then attempt to boot from the HDD. Convention would dictate you disconnect the power to the B: drive (drive 2). That way if you wanted to boot from a floppy disk you could. In your case it doesn't really matter, but I would plug drive 1 back in and take the power from drive 2.

One other thing - the older MFM style drives like yours do not like been powered on and off without 'parking' the heads. This is accomplished by running a program in DOS before powering down the machine. The program moves the HDD head into a special position called the landing zone which prevents damage to the drive. I.E. if powered off the head may land in a position on the drive platter which results in physical damage to the disk. I wouldn't power the machine back on until you have a monitor as you want to avoid this from happening if possible (i.e. if the machine is booting then you can run the park utility).

EDIT: *Yes it is also normal NOT to have a jumper setting for the hard drive. These older machines rely on the HDD controller having its own BIOS which allows the PC to boot from it.
 
Head Parking is for transport *only*, not for ordinary day to day operation. I never parked the heads in any of my machines with MFM drives and they all worked all the time ans some of them still do! :)
 
Head Parking is for transport *only*, not for ordinary day to day operation. I never parked the heads in any of my machines with MFM drives and they all worked all the time ans some of them still do! :)

Many early MFM drives also used the remaining rotational inerta after power was removed to "auto-park" the heads. So parking those was pointless.

However, Kalok's designs went into that other paragon of hard drive reliability made in India, JT Storage ("JT" for "Jugi Tandon").

I wish you the best of luck.
 
Anyways, it should work in your 5150 as long as it is not the original revision motherboard which lacked hard disk support (it's not that common these days to come across one but they do show up from time to time so, we'll never know).
(How can I tell if this motherboard is compatible with a hard drive?)
The requirement is that the IBM 5150's motherboard be fitted with the third (and final) BIOS revision. The information at [here] will allow determination of the BIOS revision.

The controller is a "WDC 60-000156-02 XO" as identified by printing on the board.
In the top-left corner of the card, do you see "WDXT-GEN" printed?

2. I have installed the hard drive interface card and plugged in both connectors from the interface card.
Assuming that the controller is a Western Digital WDXT-GEN, a connection diagram is at [here].

I powered on the computer. There was a single beep and hard drive activity
It is possible that the hard drive activity was the drive doing a self test. Such a test is normally over within about 15 seconds on the drive receiving power.

You really need a monitor before we continue to troubleshoot this.
I agree.
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks again for all of the advice.

I pulled the color graphics card. It is an IBM 1501486 XM. the card has an RCA audio jack output and a 9-pin CGA video connection.

I don't have a CGA monitor, and neither do any of the folks local who I thought might have one I can use.

I will do some more searching for a monitor that will work. I'll also answer the other remaining questions.

Thanks again for your help.

Jeff
 
>the card has an RCA audio jack output
that would be composite video. You can hook it to a composite display
 
I pulled the color graphics card .... the card has an RCA audio jack output
that would be composite video. You can hook it to a composite display
Also, assuming that your modern TV has an 'AV' set of inputs, try connecting the CGA card's RCA connector to your modern TV.
Of course, you will then need to select the appropriate AV input on your TV.

jj7235678124352.png


An example of what I see when I do that is shown at [here].
 
Hi Again Guys,

Thanks for your input.

First, to answer the question about the Bios. The information on the chip states "1501476" which according to the information you provided, means it is the third generation.

To the question regarding the printed information on the interface card... "WDXT-GEN" is printed on the upper left of the card.

I couldn't get the monitor to recognize and input using the RCA video output connection on the card. I tried all the different jack outputs from the television, and attempting to select the correct input for the television each time.

I searched around a little and found an adapter for a VGA to CGA setup. I ordered this tonight and the delivery quoted is Wednesday. In the meantime I'll be patient, unless there's something that I am missing.

The system hasn't been operational in 25 years, so there could be other issues. I'll just wait for the adapter to see if a VGA monitor will display start-up information.

Thanks again for all of the advice.

Take Care,

Jeff
 
I couldn't get the monitor to recognize and input using the RCA video output connection on the card. I tried all the different jack outputs from the television, and attempting to select the correct input for the television each time.

I searched around a little and found an adapter for a VGA to CGA setup. I ordered this tonight and the delivery quoted is Wednesday. In the meantime I'll be patient, unless there's something that I am missing.

The system hasn't been operational in 25 years, so there could be other issues. I'll just wait for the adapter to see if a VGA monitor will display start-up information.
While you are waiting for the CGA-to-VGA adapter to turn up, following are a couple of things to try:

It would be good to verify that the two video switches on motherboard switch block SW1 are set for CGA (either of the two CGA settings).
Of the two switch blocks on the motherboard, SW1 is the one closest to the center of the motherboard.
The SW1 settings can be found at [here].

Try removing then inserting the CGA card about 5 times. That action should rectify any poor connection that has developed between the card's fingers and the motherboard slot.
 
Hi Modem7,

While you are waiting for the CGA-to-VGA adapter to turn up, following are a couple of things to try:

It would be good to verify that the two video switches on motherboard switch block SW1 are set for CGA (either of the two CGA settings).
Of the two switch blocks on the motherboard, SW1 is the one closest to the center of the motherboard.
The SW1 settings can be found at [here].

Try removing then inserting the CGA card about 5 times. That action should rectify any poor connection that has developed between the card's fingers and the motherboard slot.

I checked the dip switches to confirm that they are set for CGA. (They were.)

I also removed and reinserted the card several times with no change. (The contact surfaces on the card were in great condition.)

(Before checking for the video signal to the monitor I removed the hard drive from the system, just to make sure it wasn't powered on/off any more times than necessary.)

I'll keep you posted when the 9-pin to 15-pin connector arrives.

Thanks again for all the help.

Jeff
 
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