Hard disk problems
First off, happy Thanksgiving to everybody who celebrates it!
Anyways, I've got a Seagate ST251-MLC2 hard disk and 3 separate ISA MFM controllers (currently using an IBM 6135983 controller because it's the only one that seems to respond at all). When the computer starts up (It's labeled ACS and it's an AT-class Pentium-133 with 128MB of RAM, I have pictures if needed) it counts memory twice and gives all the standard POST outputs until for a flash of a second you can see "1701" at the end of the "Searching for boot media..." message.
The drive spins up and does it's seek tests properly as far as I know. It just seems to not be detected by this card (or at least not properly) and the other cards seem not to be detected by the computer. The other two (one is a Western Digital with no model numbers, and the other one is a Cirrus Logic board and laid out pretty much the same but still with no model numbers. The only markings I have to go off of are on the main IC and the Cirrus Logic's BIOS chip, which is labeled "SM-1150 VER 3.18". I can get a list of ICs on each, but I feel that'll only get me so far before it's just not helpful.
No operating system is installed on this computer as far as I know, neither on the main hard disk (A 545MB Seagate Medalist IDE) or on the Seagate ST251-MLC2. I don't have any DOS floppies right now, but I have tried to start Windows 98 setup, however the Raite Optoelectronics RDR-108H 8x DVD-ROM drive doesn't even want to open it's tray to let me put a CD in.
I'm really not sure what might be going wrong here. Any help or suggestions? I've got another MFM drive (An IBM "Type 0665-53) drive that is much bigger and also spins up, but does not fit in this particular case). Sorry for the long post, just wanted to give all the facts!
Anyways, I've got a Seagate ST251-MLC2 hard disk and 3 separate ISA MFM controllers (currently using an IBM 6135983 controller because it's the only one that seems to respond at all). When the computer starts up (It's labeled ACS and it's an AT-class Pentium-133 with 128MB of RAM, I have pictures if needed) it counts memory twice and gives all the standard POST outputs until for a flash of a second you can see "1701" at the end of the "Searching for boot media..." message.
The drive spins up and does it's seek tests properly as far as I know. It just seems to not be detected by this card (or at least not properly) and the other cards seem not to be detected by the computer. The other two (one is a Western Digital with no model numbers, and the other one is a Cirrus Logic board and laid out pretty much the same but still with no model numbers. The only markings I have to go off of are on the main IC and the Cirrus Logic's BIOS chip, which is labeled "SM-1150 VER 3.18". I can get a list of ICs on each, but I feel that'll only get me so far before it's just not helpful.
No operating system is installed on this computer as far as I know, neither on the main hard disk (A 545MB Seagate Medalist IDE) or on the Seagate ST251-MLC2. I don't have any DOS floppies right now, but I have tried to start Windows 98 setup, however the Raite Optoelectronics RDR-108H 8x DVD-ROM drive doesn't even want to open it's tray to let me put a CD in.
I'm really not sure what might be going wrong here. Any help or suggestions? I've got another MFM drive (An IBM "Type 0665-53) drive that is much bigger and also spins up, but does not fit in this particular case). Sorry for the long post, just wanted to give all the facts!
Comments
The low level format for almost every MFM or RLL card is different. So you will need to low-level it with the specific card you want to use before it will see the drive. Most cards will continue to issue the "1701" error until the drive is low-level formatted.
If there is data on it that you want to recover, you will need to use the original controller, or a controller of an identical model.
8-bit MFM/RLL cards often have problems in machines later than a 486. I don't know why or if there is a way to work around it. (Disable on-board hardware? Lower the ISA bus speed?)
If I recall correctly, the 6135983 (XEBEC) is hard coded to only work with a couple of drive geometries.
You might try formatting or testing with Speedstor: http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/software/speedstor.htm
That makes formatting easier and sometimes can shed extra light on problems.
Also be sure to quadruple check the cables.
The cables are the eighth set I've tried so far, and I've seen no clear difference.
As far as I know, there is no data on this drive at all.
I'll try the Cirrus Logic card next and will report back with whatever results I happen to get, if any at all.
So far, however, the system seems to be hanging at the "Oak Technologies CD-ROM driver" message (the first one in a series) from the boot floppy I have.
I've got no 5.25 floppy diskettes for PCs, and I don't have any way to put this software onto one. I'll try with a bootable 1.44mb 3.5 diskette and see if that works.
I'll try the WD controller and the IBM controller next if I can't find a way to get this one working. I'm thinking it's either the DMA setting on the card being pushy or the HDA (Hard Disk Address) setting trying to hog the onboard IDE controller's resources.
Neither the IBM card or the WD card have as many jumpers as this one, however the WD card does have one. I'm not sure what it does, as it's not marked, but it does have a jumper (W1, with pins 7-8 bridged as they are the only two actually on the card).
EDIT: I get the error 0x80 no matter what. Any help?
Yeah that's what happens. Sorry for the absolute garbage camerawork there.
I got it working, this thread can be closed now.
The onboard IDE might have been messing with it as well, but I've turned that off for now.
The drive is low-level formatted now, with 27 entries on the defect table currently.
I'd like to be able to use my IDE drives (A 545MB Seagate Medalist drive and a Raite Optoelectronics 8x DVD-ROM drive) to run WIndows 98 on this computer. Any ideas on how that can be done?
Are you saying you want to run 98 with the MFM controller also present?
To get it to run Windows 98, you will have to enable the IDE drive, as it just won't fit on 40mb. If it does not conflict with the MFM drive, then one will be C: and the other
If the IDE is C:, then you are good. If it is
The MFM drive will probably only work in "bios compatiblity mode".
The IBM controller's EPROM window seems to be exposed, so I'm going to consider that to be defective or damaged until I can get a new or more functional one. I've also tried the Cirrus Logic board in a Pentium II system, which I was trying to use this in before the current one, but it wouldn't even detect the card's existence.
All I did was put the Western Digital MFM controller in and disable both onboard IDE channels.
Yes, I would like to run Windows 98, but I'll settle for Windows 95 until that can be possible.
Also, the drive is working just fine... except MS-DOS 6.22 refuses to install to it. It can do all the tests that SpeedStor(TM) 6.5 throws at it, and comes out with 42 defects total and seems to work just fine there, but MS-DOS Setup has decided to give the following error message:
Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Setup
======================
An error occurred while reading or writing to drive
C
Try the operation again.
Fail the operation.
ENTER=Continue UP/DOWN ARROW=Change Selection
No matter how many times I press "Enter" or choose "Fail" it won't let me copy files to the drive or access it in general.
I'll try using the Partitioning functions of SpeedStor(TM) 6.5 and report back with the results.
I'd still like to use my 545MB Seagate Medalist IDE drive at the same time for Windows 98SE without removing the Seagate ST251-MLC2 from the system.