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ST-225 MFM in newer PC

The Perstor controllers were peculiar--Spinrite, for example, required a special PERSTOR argument to the command line to low-level format. Hmmm...that's a thought--you might try an old (say, 1.x-2.x) copy of Spinrite and see if you can format using the PERSTOR argument.

The perplexing thing about your controller, is that I'm not sure about the model number! It's not one of these--they don't use a PLCC IC.
 
MikeS:
Yes, You're right. I'm trying to find another controller, but I have to say I'm quite curious whether I can use the ST255 with Perstor or not. I've spent so many time with searching and received a lot of good ideas from the Members of this forum, so I'm trying on to find the way to the solution.

Chuck(G):
My controller is similar than what You can see on the first page (the black and white photo), but not exactly the same.
I attached 2 photos about my card.

Thank You for the idea about the Spinrite, I'm going to find and try it.
 
Way, Way back in the day I used to run a pair of my old 40 meg MFM drives alongside a pair of 80 meg IDE, a 120 meg IDE and a 160 meg IDE on Dos 6.

The key was NOT to enable the bios on the MFM card and use a driver that made those extra drives work. I'll go digging through the various BBS websites to see if I can remember what it was called.

The MFM's were on a WD card without the on-card bios working, the primary IDE's were on a standard multifunction card, and the secondary was one of those really nice Boca boards with the endless jumpers for enabling/disabiling things. (including the IRQ select).

Was operating mostly on discarded parts at the time (1993-94ish) so getting six drives going in my machine for over half a gig storage was hot ****.

I'll see if I can find that old DOS driver for you. Boot from the IDE, let the driver handle the MFM's is usually the best bet.
 
"ERROR (0x80) Controller fails to respond"

If you perform the controller self-test in SpeedStor (select Diagnostics then Controller), do you see "Internal Controller test - PASSED" at screen bottom?
If you don't, could this be as simple as the controller being configured for secondary rather than primary?
 
deathshadow:
Thank You in advance! I hope You'll find that driver.

modem7:
Yes, the internal controller test says: Passed. I double checked the ST225 description and my settings: JP7 1-2 closed, the others are opened and the resistor pack is on the HDD.


If anybody has a copy of a Perstor disk or a Spinrite II 1.0 / 2.0 and send me, I would be very happy. I have not found them yet.
 
The program was callled 3_drives (and there was a 4_drives)... funny thing is, there's a thread about it here on Vint.
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?7047-One-more-hard-drive-in-286

http://cd.textfiles.com/drsharewaregold/utility1/3drvs150.zip

I used to use 4_drives to do more than two MFM controllers, so I know it can be done. You just need a controller that lets you change it's port and disable IRQ's... which I'm not sure your MFM controller allows for.

Though if you could move the MFM card's I/O ports without disabling the IRQ's you could probably boot into win95 and it would auto-recognize the extra controller and configure it.
 
Thank You for Your help! That program can be good with another controller - as You noticed, too. But not with this Perstor, because if I put it into the machine, the IDE drive doesn't work. I can do anything change in the CMOS or on the motherboard, in doesn't help.

If I don't find a copy of a Perstor disk, I can put this controller away for decoration. :)
Maybe the solution is on this floppy disk:
http://www.recycledgoods.com/products/Perstor-PS180-8XT-8AT-200-Series-Hard-Disk-Controller.html
:)

In a SpinRite v5.0 manual I read that Perstor controller is incompatible with SpinRite.

But in a SpinRite Version 1.2b readme file I found this:
"PERSTOR - If you are using a PerStor controller when SpinRite tells you that it is unable to low-level format your drive, simply add the word "PERSTOR" to SpinRite's command to eliminate the problem."
This could be my last chance, but I have not found this version. :(
 
If it's not coming up with the IDE controller installed, it's likely an IRQ or BIOS conflict.

If that's a PS-180 you should have jumpers to move it to the secondary port:
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-di...STEMS-INC-Two-MFM-or-RLL-ST506-412-drive.html
J1 open, J6 to pins 2 & 3 to disable floppy (to prevent floppy controllers conflicting), J3 on pins 2 & 3 to move the controller to port 2. (0x170h)

Just be sure your ide controller only has one port, or if you have more than one disable the second. That could be part of your problem.
 
My controller is a PS180-16FN, like the Rev:2.2:
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-di...S-INC-Two-MFM-or-RLL-ST506-ST412-dri-208.html

Anyway, I did the following:
- disabled the controller's BIOS
- disabled the floppy drive on the controller
- set the floppy drive port address to 370-377h
- set the hard drive port address to 170-177h
- disabled the IRQ14

And thank You so much now I can use the IDE hard drive and the floppy drives too if the MFM controller is connected. :)

In the CMOS I set the IDE as drive C and set the ST255 as drive D (as type 2).
The machine can boot from the IDE HDD and there is the following messages:

D: drive failure
Press <F1> to resume
*** then 3_drives starts and says:
Error #16: Accessing drive or Drive not attached
cyl = 0 hd = 0 sect = 1

I checked the 3_drives program's doc file and says:
"Error code #16 : Sector ID Not Found. cyl=xx hd=xx sect=xx
May need a low-level format."
:confused1:
 
You still need to LL format the ST225--if it will format with this controller. Early ST225s would not--you needed the ST225R. Later 225s would, as plated media became the production standard.

I'm assuming that 1.12B SpinRite was the first version of SpinRite where the "PERSTOR" keyword was introduced, so later versions (up to a point) should still support it. Of course, all of this is just supposition.

Rather than purchase another card just to get the floppy (and hope that it will work with your controller and drive combination), I'd look for a more mainstream controller. If you're stuck on RLL, the Western Digital WD1006 series, particularly the WD1006V-SR2 are very reliable and compatible with just about everything. There should be lots of them still around, as they were even cloned by the Taiwanese.
 
Well, I don't like to give up problems, but I think it's time for me to finish this Perstor thing. :???:

Now I try to find a more mainstream controller, as You suggested.

Thanks a lot Everybody for the lot of help!
 
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