Need Help with a Hard Drive problem on an IBM 5170 Type 1

[Old PC Man]

My 5170 has a WD 1003-WA2 Windchester/Floppy Drive controller. The floppies are working fine but my Seagate ST225 HD is not. I know it is not the HD. I tested the HD in an old IBM PC and it worked fine. I've double checked the HD Drive Select setting and it's OK. I've changed out both ribbon cables and that didn't help. The controller seems to be communicating with the HD since the FDISK command worked. I just can't partition the drive. The HD just makes a noise and then hangs.

I downloaded some information on the controller from WD but the information WD provided doesn't match the controller I have. I noticed that pin 15 is missing on the 34 pin controller connection and pin 8 is missing on the 20 pin connection. I haven't seen this arrangement before and I'm wondering if special cables are needed.

I'm also wondering if the controller is for RLL Drives.

The CMOS drive type I selected is Type 2.

Any help on this problem will be appreciated.

Thanks

Old PC Man

 

[barryp]

Re: Need Help with a Hard Drive problem on an IBM 5170 Type

Re: Need Help with a Hard Drive problem on an IBM 5170 Type

I have a WD1003-WA2, there are three jumpers; right in the middle are E1-E2-E3 and E4-E5-E6, in the bottom right; E7-E8-E9.

Mine has E2-E3, E5-E6 and E7-E8 connected. That's all that I can see that can be changed.

I believe that it's MFM, I have a program somewhere that will confirm it if I can find it...

 

[Super-Slasher]

I had the exact same problem with my AT's. The only way I could seem to remedy them is by using Disk Manager to properly identify, read, format and and then use those hard drives.

That was the only thing that would have worked for me. Before I couldn't get the controller to recognize them at all, whatever I did, or format them in DOS. The floppies always worked fine, though.

You should beable to find a copy of Disk Manager on the net in old software archives. It's one of the best things for old PC's, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Old PC Man]

barryp and Super-Slasher

Thanks for you help and sugestions.

I've have spent most of the afternoon looking for "Disk Manager" on the web. I visited WD, Seagate, Ontract, and several other sites that have ventage software and just did not find it. If you happen know a specific web location where I can download a copy of "Disk Manager", please let me know.

As information, I have tried the old Debug -G=C800:5 routine to low level format the ST225 and was unsuccessful. Apparently the controller board does not have an onboard chip to accomodate this routine.

The IBM Advanced Diagostics Disk I downloaded (AVDG207.EXE) doesn't have a low level format feature either. If it does, I couldn't find it.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I'll keep working on it, and, if I find a way to overcome this problem, I'll share the solution with everone.

Old PC Man

 

[Super-Slasher]

I've taken my copy of Disk Manager and put it to zip file for you. If you can PM me your e-mail address I'll send it to you right away.

It fits on a 360KB diskette just perfectly, so it's also suitable for any bigger media. Unfortunately it is not a bootable disk, so you'd need to use a DOS boot disk first to access the Disk Manager program.

 

[Old PC Man]

Thanks to eveyone's help, I'm closer to having the old IBM 5170 setup the way I'd planned.

Using DM, I was able to perform a Low Level format on the old ST 225 HD and subsequently FDISK and FORMAT the drive.

It had no defective sectors to MAP OUT and I'm pleased with the way it is working.

My next step is to locate a memory expansion board and add 2MB of memory. After that, maybe I'll add a modem and a few other items like a tape backup. I known these items will be hard to find.

Thanks again,

Old PC Man

 

[jedwg]

XT vs AT HD Formats

XT vs AT HD Formats

As OLD PC MAN found out, HDs formatted with an XT will not work in an AT without Low-Level reformatting...and vice-versa. Smilarly, in my experience, HDs formatted with say a Seagate HD Controller card will likely not work with a Western Digital card. I always preferred using the later Western Digital HD controller cards as they contained the "Smart BIOS" that greatly eased Low-Level format, and worked with a full range of HD Types...without changing jumpers as on many earlier other cards.