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Seagate ST-4038 MFM hard Drive Ressurection or Burial?

Stone said:
I have a Western Digital diagnostic program that might reveal the issue here. I'm not positive if you actually need a WD controller (which the OP does have) to avail yourself of its usefulness. It claims to be able to indicate a possible track zero problem. I also have one or two LLF programs specifically for WD controllers.
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ATM ive been using a seagate tool to low level format the drive. It gets all the way to the end if the format but with 'drive format recal error' all the way. The seagate tool also has a format/verify function. If you say yes to the intensive pattern test option, it gets to about sector 30 and stops, reporting 'too many errors

The graphical representation of the drive platters shows lots of red blocks on the lower platter underside. The surfaces of the other platters are mostly clear of bad blocks.

Is track 0 likely located on on the lower of the 3 platters?
 
Caluser2000 said:
Sometimes you waste far to much time trying to sort out old drives. I know I have but not any more. better of with a xt-ide setup in the long run.
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The reason for this entire mfm setup is to see if the drive is functional. The pentium PC is just a test bed. If I get the drive working, it is destined for an S100 box with TurboDOS installed on it - hence why I can't go for a modern replacement like XTIDE. A very generous VCFED member recently sent me the S100 Winchester boards for my IMS 8000, so I hope to have it running with TurboDOS eventually.
 
The fact that the format/very option stops at sector 30 and at that point the head stepping noise starts making 'stressed' noises, like it is sticking, makes me wonder if the head is getting stuck on some dried up grease or something. When running just the LLF however, it does complete, and sound like it has stepped the full travel of the disk. I also wonder if as another poster mentioned, the drive has a track 0 sensor error? Is that what 'drive recal error' means?
 
alan8086 said:
ATM ive been using a seagate tool to low level format the drive. It gets all the way to the end if the format but with 'drive format recal error' all the way. The seagate tool also has a format/verify function. If you say yes to the intensive pattern test option, it gets to about sector 30 and stops, reporting 'too many errors

The graphical representation of the drive platters shows lots of red blocks on the lower platter underside. The surfaces of the other platters are mostly clear of bad blocks.

Is track 0 likely located on on the lower of the 3 platters?
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It depends on the order it is displaying it. SpeedStor would give you a textual list of bad tracks so you could see if it is just one head.

You could try reducing the number of heads in the BIOS parameters and seeing if that formats.
 
SomeGuy said:
It depends on the order it is displaying it. SpeedStor would give you a textual list of bad tracks so you could see if it is just one head.

You could try reducing the number of heads in the BIOS parameters and seeing if that formats.
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Didn't know you could do that - so just choose a different drive type or use the same parameters with one less head?
 
All the errors are related to head 0 according to the segtfmt4 verify utility - which is the one on the underside of the lower platter, where the red blocks are depicted.
 
alan8086 said:
The reason for this entire mfm setup is to see if the drive is functional. The pentium PC is just a test bed.
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The Pentium may not be 100% compatible with that MFM controller, i.e., it may be a tad too fast. I can't remember with full certainty but I remember having some issues with 16-bit controllers/MFM drives with a 133mHz CPU.

Does that board have any PCI slots?
 
Stone said:
The Pentium may not be 100% compatible with that MFM controller, i.e., it may be a tad too fast. I can't remember with full certainty but I remember having some issues with 16-bit controllers/MFM drives with a 133mHz CPU.

Does that board have any PCI slots?
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Yes, it has three ISA and maybe 4 PCI slots. The only older PC I have is a Compaq portable III - 286. I have the expansion unit with 2 ISA slots, it's more hassle to disable the onboard IDE and floppy controllers however.
 
alan8086 said:
The reason for this entire mfm setup is to see if the drive is functional. The pentium PC is just a test bed. If I get the drive working, it is destined for an S100 box with TurboDOS installed on it - hence why I can't go for a modern replacement like XTIDE. A very generous VCFED member recently sent me the S100 Winchester boards for my IMS 8000, so I hope to have it running with TurboDOS eventually.
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S100 IDE controllers do exist. http://s100computers.com/My System Pages/IDE Board/My IDE Card.htm
 
Caluser2000 said:
S100 IDE controllers do exist. http://s100computers.com/My System Pages/IDE Board/My IDE Card.htm
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I've had a look at what's available on the S100computers site. It's certainly a possibility, buying their IDE board and building a working unit though. It would be C/PM only though and my coding skills are near zero for any drivers that may be required.

Reason I like TurboDOS is because it's interesting, rare, plus a bit more intuitive in use from what I've read of the various user manuals.
Also - I have the TD hardware and software specific to my Industrial Micro Systems box, just need a working MFM drive.

IMS International ( started out as Industrial Micro Systems) were among the greater proponents of TurboDOS - a lot of their S100 boards and boot ROM code were built specifically for TD.

I've always liked the idea of having a big daft old S100 machine that was cutting edge in Its day, running off a hard drive instead of floppies. I have 2 systems with 8" floppy drives, one with 5.25 full height drives and my Compaq portable with a 1GB IDE and 1.44mb floppy.

TurboDOS would be compatible with a lot of the CP/M software I have too. Perhaps I'd have the best of both worlds, a CP/M compatible machine with hard drive and floppies - now if I could just get it on the 'net with one of those Wifi to Serial adapters!
 
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