CelticDubstep wrote on 2022-10-26, 00:20:

I recently purchased a 386SX-20 system with a Quantum Hardcard EZ 240 in it as well as an MFM Controller Card, but no MFM Hard D […]
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I recently purchased a 386SX-20 system with a Quantum Hardcard EZ 240 in it as well as an MFM Controller Card, but no MFM Hard Drive. The information online is very limited on the Quantum Hardcard EZ 240 and I'm not familiar with 386's, especially the SX platform since it's somewhat of a beefed up 286. I really only go as far back as a 486DX2-66 with a standard I/O IDE Controller Card.

The BIOS is very limited & basic with no autodetection and has a 500ish MB limit on drive size. I'd like to put this system to use, but I don't have an MFM drive nor do I have an IDE controller card and they seem to be rather expensive.

Anyone work with these Quantum Hardcard EZ 240 drives before? Are they bootable like any other "normal" drive? The system posts normally (need a CMOS battery) but when it gets past the BIOS screen, it gets to an error of something like "NO ROM" or something? I dunno. Any suggestions?

Many thanks!

I can't help on the bootability aspect other than to say that the BIOS should see it as an IDE drive (presumably if it recognizes the onboard controller) [1] , but I will say that at least some Quantum (used to be by Plus corporation) Hardcards have a reputation for having parts that degrade in a way that renders them unusable without some kind of repair/refurbishing [2]. I don't know whether this applies to all models or not .

[1]
https://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/maxtor/en … ard_jumpers.pdf

[2]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzMoEwTTFJs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03g9x2mr_LQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXMFbHx8s0Q

The PDF is showing it needs a special driver in order to read the card as per below:

Driver Needed: ATDOSHC.SYS
Must be installed in CONFIG.SYS as:
DEVICE=ATDOSHC.SYS
In order for the hardcard to work in a given system, the user must assign a unique IRQ and a BIOS address.
The default for this card is IRQ 11, BIOS address C8000-C9FFF.
SW8 is reserved for IRQ 14 (IDE MODE).

However, since the drive doesn't have any other drive, I don't have a config.sys file to edit, nor do I have the driver file. The jumpers were all over the place so I reset them back to the default shown in the PDF and now the system boots to a normal "Insert System Disk" or something along those lines. At least the NO ROM PRESENT" error is gone and it actually tries to boot from a floppy. However, I can't get it to boot from a floppy. I created a DOS 6.22 disk and tested it on a laptop I have and the laptop boots perfectly fine with it. This 386 seems to only boot from A, but B and whomever configured this 386 had the drives reversed (1.2MB 5.25") was A & (1.44MB 3.5") was set as B and the system would only try to boot from A so I changed the cable around and reset the BIOS and it attempts to read the DOS boot disk, but just gives a drive failure error. I tried a spare 3.5" 1.44MB drive I had laying around and same result. I'm pretty sure the hard drive is OK. It's spinning, does a normal head seek at boot, no click of death, etc. It's acting & sounding like any other Quantum drive I've owned. I think if I was able to get the system to boot as well as load the driver for the card, it would work perfectly fine.

For the life of me, I simply can't get this 386SX to do anything. I dunno. I'm almost tempted to gut this 386 system and trash it and build a Socket 7 System out of the case. I don't even know what I'd do with a 386SX-20. The 486 Zeos has a DX-33 in it which isn't swappable so I bought a new motherboard with a DX2-66 included. I still don't see a point in having a 486/33 & 486/66 though. I dunno, getting a bit annoyed at these systems at the moment.