486 problem

[Eeyore]

again ... SpinRite is the killer ap ... it low level formats or "renews"
the disk without hurting data ...

Can you tell me more about that ?

Graham

 

[Ken Weitzel]

Can you tell me more about that ?

Graham

Hi Graham..

The emphasis on "low level" format... we haven't done that since
back around the time sunshine was invented.

Thank goodness

Take care.

Ken

 

[Lionel]

Can you tell me more about that ?

A guy called Steve Gibson wrote it in the '80s. He's online these
days: <http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm>
If you actually need one of the older versions that worked on MFM &
RLL controllers, it'd probably be worth dropping him a line.

 

[Lionel]

Hi Graham..

The emphasis on "low level" format... we haven't done that since
back around the time sunshine was invented.

Thank goodness

Ain't that the truth. ;^)

 

[Lionel]

it is true that sometimes your drive will not work with a different
controller...the only way to know without having unavailable info is to
try it...beware as in many cases if you are trying something, do not do
anything like chkdsk since then you are not only trying, you are changeing

the reason is that the low level format program is on the bios of the
controller ... when you set up a disk you use the debug comand to run
the controllers "setup" program which low level formats the drive and i
guess the partition is set too... then it is ready to do the regular
high level format with DOS ... different controllers had slightly
different parameters sometimes so you can't just switch and expect to
read the drive set up on another type controller

the thing is that these drives lose the low level format over time ...
that is where spinrite allows you to
redo it without saving the data and putting it back

WD 300 ... does not ring a bell ... WD1003 does

Yep. Also the WD1006 (WD = Western Digital).

and your drives are double spaced or single spaced, whatever one was the
little used format ... that does complicate things ... again info that
is in the past as far as my brain goes ... sorry

Interleaving? The big goal back then for performance was to build your
system fast enough to cope with 1:1 interleaving on the hard disk,
which gave you the maximum R/W throughput. (This is totally
unneccessary now.)

 

[jonpi]

conflict. There was a great website called "The Ref (tm)" with a lot of
mirrored sites, but I can't find any of them that still exist.

yes .. The Ref was the killer site ... back in the mid 90's

 

[jonpi]

SpinRite by Bob Gibson ... a google search will find his site ... any
old version will work probably ... it runs long and slow and removes
some data, checks the drive surface, and refreshes the low level format,
then replaces the data .... if a sector of the drive is unusable it
marks it bad ... a grown defect it is ... and i believe it "disappears"
it just like the factory defects are disappeared

i bet you can find it on ebay ... the newest version is $90 dollars but
the older versions I'm sure are out there cheap

 

[Tim]

A guy called Steve Gibson wrote it in the '80s. He's online these
days: <http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm>
If you actually need one of the older versions that worked on MFM &
RLL controllers, it'd probably be worth dropping him a line.

I have the printed text file instructions for a WD1003-WA2 Controller if
that's useful. A 486 with an old MFM or RLL drive in it? Not really
common unless it was an upgrade from an older system. The drive does
have 2 separate cables on it right? If you post the drive model I may
have the specs on it. Your original post doesn't show up in my news
reader.

I remember the low level format command used debug on the DOS boot disk
to start up a drive from scratch. You ran debug then entered G=C800:5
and the controller's ROM would start a low level format routine. I also
have Spinrite kicking around here somewhere. We used that to "square
up" drives that had been used for while, and were having data issues.

I grew up on that old technology....

- Tim -

 

[clifto]

yes .. The Ref was the killer site ... back in the mid 90's

I found a Simtel mirror at http://ftp.univie.ac.at/mirror/simtelnet/
but I can't remember which directory tree TheRef was in. Don't know how
recent their copy will be. Simtel itself doesn't give results for a
search on "theref".

 

[Jack]

I found a Simtel mirror at http://ftp.univie.ac.at/mirror/simtelnet/
but I can't remember which directory tree TheRef was in. Don't know how
recent their copy will be. Simtel itself doesn't give results for a
search on "theref".

Try this site if its not too late


http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/geom/tracks_ZBR.htm