HH drives

From: Tillman, Edward <Edward.Tillman_at_valero.com>
Date: Tue Apr 15 02:08:00 2003

Hmm...

If they're FAT16 (2.1Gb max recognition), maybe you can get hold of an old
copy of Partition Magic, and see if you can read them with it.

Its doubtful that the drives are physically harmed, but the 0 Sector (boot
and/or reference sector) will be different with each version of DOS you try.
If you can boot from floppy, you may want to reformat the disks (DOS 2.11,
or 3.20) and start anew. Do you know what they likely contain? Are they
worth the time/effort to recover as-is?

Cheers...

Ed Tillman
Store Automation Tech Support Specialist
  Valero Energy Corporation
San Antonio, Texas, USA
Office: (210)592-3110, Fax (210)592-2048
Email: edward.tillman_at_valero.com <mailto:edward.tillman_at_valero.com>


-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Greenstreet [mailto:aeg_at_paradise.net.nz]
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2003 10:55 PM
To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: HH drives


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?

Thanks in advance

Alan
Received on Tue Apr 15 2003 - 02:08:00 BST