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Please ID this Data General diskdrive...

jdreesen

Experienced Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2012
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414
Location
Switzerland
This Data General disk drive came into my possession today : sadly it was changed into a showpiece by directly driving the disk and not much else. Probably toast by now..
I can recognize the serial IO typical of the micronova series, but not much else.

If someone can ID this drive?

dg_disk.jpg
 
After around 45 mins poking around managed to find a drive for sale, looks like its the same drive... Haven't been able to find anything else so far. But at least you have better pictures now.


Here's a video of it in action...


So did a little more digging in old computerworld ads, and found this

"6227D 15 MB DISK"

Not 100%, but I only see 2 15mb options for Data Generals listed, and other is a removable cartridge style. So this might be the model number for that drive.
 
Last edited:
This Data General disk drive came into my possession today : sadly it was changed into a showpiece by directly driving the disk and not much else. Probably toast by now..
I can recognize the serial IO typical of the micronova series, but not much else.

If someone can ID this drive?

View attachment 1246049
Could you upload hign quality images of the control board. I am rebuilding it from scratch since the one I just bought from EBay does not have any of its circuit boards.

Thanks.
 
Not feasible in my opinion, but good luck if you want to try...
The controller is a multilayer board and is stuffed with DG-specific IC's. Thers is also something I believe to be an 8X300 ( but no firmware ROMs?) , a 8049 controller and a MB8877 FDC
( This controller handles both the harddisk and floppydrives) Also the powercircuitry for the stepper is located on an other board that I do not have.


20221231_122053.jpg20221231_122100.jpg
 
I don't know if that big CerDIP is an 8x300--those usually give themselves away by a TO-5 voltage regulator transistor very close by. That big 47 ohm resistor may be related, however.
 
Not feasible in my opinion, but good luck if you want to try...
The controller is a multilayer board and is stuffed with DG-specific IC's. Thers is also something I believe to be an 8X300 ( but no firmware ROMs?) , a 8049 controller and a MB8877 FDC
( This controller handles both the harddisk and floppydrives) Also the powercircuitry for the stepper is located on an other board that I do not have.


View attachment 1250859View attachment 1250860
The stepper motor board? Do I have that one on mine? Also I may be able to find the Data General chips somewhere.
 
Possibly...but you asking this suggests to me that you are seriously underestimating the difficulty of what you want to achieve. Possible, yes, but seriously difficult.
 
Possibly...but you asking this suggests to me that you are seriously underestimating the difficulty of what you want to achieve. Possible, yes, but seriously difficult.
I do not have a clue on how to repair one of these but I want to restore it to some resemblance of functionality. By that I mean reading and writting to the disk. I have only ever worked on more modern gard drives.
 
Hey I am reaching out again to see if you can provide me some more info on the circuit boards.
 
The only programmable device I recognize is a 8049, which my Expro-60 does not support ( it can read 8749 though) I also do not have a schematic for the PCB.
t does use the DG specific serial IO, so if you do not have a fitting microNova you are out of luck anyway.

I looked around the ceramic 50 pin CG1200i and its pinout makes clear this is not an 8X300. No clue what it could be...
 
The only programmable device I recognize is a 8049, which my Expro-60 does not support ( it can read 8749 though) I also do not have a schematic for the PCB.
t does use the DG specific serial IO, so if you do not have a fitting microNova you are out of luck anyway.

I looked around the ceramic 50 pin CG1200i and its pinout makes clear this is not an 8X300. No clue what it could be...
Thank you, since I am starting with a blank slate, I think I will base the control scheme on the better document CDC HAWK Drive. It is the only hard drive I know of that has a block procedure schematic and a stepper motor. I just picked up the interface card for a CDC HAWK drive. It has more promise since, I have been able to get in contact with someone who has done board level restorations of the CDC HAWK drive.

I did try to contact Data General UK, without success so I have decided it cannot be restored to it's original state but the parts in the drive could possibly be restored and brought to working order with a different technology.
 
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