Diagnose ISA-MFM hard drive controller \ VOGONS

Diagnose ISA-MFM hard drive controller

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First post, by Pibben

Posted on 2024-07-11, 12:42

Pibben Offline

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I have several old ISA-MFM hard drive controllers with attached hard drives that does not work. As far as I can tell DOS finds no drive. How can i diagnose this? I hear Spinrite is a good tool to diagnose drives, but as the drive is not found by DOS, it is of no use in this case. Are there any other tools that can help me?

Reply 1 of 4, by rasz_pl

Posted on 2024-07-11, 12:52

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Plus Development Hardcard ? Those are all dead, plastic/rubber melts inside and glues it shut.

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Reply 2 of 4, by weedeewee

Posted on 2024-07-11, 15:16

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rasz_pl wrote on 2024-07-11, 12:52:

Plus Development Hardcard ? Those are all dead, plastic/rubber melts inside and glues it shut.

Open up the harddrive, clean out the goo, replace the gooified rubber stopper with a replacement like a few bits of heatshrinktubing, and close the harddrive again.

Did it a few years ago. had the drive working for a few months and then put it in storage. No idea if it's still working at the moment.

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Reply 3 of 4, by Deunan

Posted on 2024-07-11, 16:15

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Pibben wrote on 2024-07-11, 12:42:

I have several old ISA-MFM hard drive controllers with attached hard drives that does not work.

That diagnosis is just not good enough. Does the HDD spin? Does it seek? Is it a problem with the HDD at all, or something more generic like the whole card doesn't seem to do anything? Photos would help as well.

Reply 4 of 4, by dionb

Posted on 2024-07-11, 18:56

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Also, have you low-level formatted the drives with this specific controller (Debug-Routine) or just hooked up drives and controller that have no history together?

Maybe give specs and/or pics of all relevant hardware...

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