HH drives

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Sat Apr 12 23:48:01 2003

On Sun, 13 Apr 2003, Alan Greenstreet wrote:

> Hi All
>
> I have a newbie question <collective groan from list>
> I don't have much experience with HH type drives and recently unearthed
> a Wyse Technologies machine at the local refuse recycling centre (it's
> a shop rather than me wading though a landfill site - I'm not that
> desperate).
>
> Inside this machine (stated built in 1986) were two HH type 5.25" hard
> drives (one a Segate ST-251 the other not branded but built 1989).
>
> On boot up I get:
> Pheonix 80386 ROM BIOS version 3.53
> (c) 1985, 1986 Pheonix Technologies Ltd
> 640K Base 1408K Extended Memory
> Hard Disk Failure
>
> I have booted the system using a floppy and one drive (the unbranded
> one) is partially readable.
> It is a 41Mb drive split into two partitions (primary & extended) -
> FAT16 system
> It seems to have been installed with DRDOS.
> Using my later versions of DOS on floppy I cannot get the drive to
> respond to any standard commands (I always get a 'Sector not found'
> error).
> Can anything be done to revive these disks or were they left unparked
> and now physically damaged?
>
> I have another 5.25" hard drive displaying the same unresponsive
> characteristics... are they all dead?

Have you gone into the BIOS to see what the settings are for the
drives? Does the clock/calendar work properly? If not, the
battery may be dead and settings incorrect.

                                                - don

> Thanks in advance
>
> Alan
Received on Sat Apr 12 2003 - 23:48:01 BST