Deunan wrote on 2024-12-19, 12:03:

The IDE controllers I've tried would all fail to work properly along my MFM/RLL cards. The suspicion is even disabled IDE channel was somehow grabbing the IRQ line and preventing the card from working.

If the card drives IRQ14 even if the IDE part is disabled (which would be bad style), putting adhesive tape over the IRQ14 pin on the ISA slot will help.

Horun wrote on 2024-12-20, 04:29:

Any luck ?

So the first issue was that I was using a floppy cable that looked just like an MFM/RLL cable except for the twist

The second issue was that the BIOS on the WD1006V-SR2 drive controller didn't get along with my 386sx motherboard .

I disabled the card's BIOS and it's all good now!

Boot’n Dos 3.3 Bay-bee!

* fixed typo

douglar wrote on 2024-12-21, 02:46:

So the first issue was that I was using a floppy cable that looked just like an MFM/RLL cable except for the twist […]
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Horun wrote on 2024-12-20, 04:29:

Any luck ?

So the first issue was that I was using a floppy cable that looked just like an MFM/RLL cable except for the twist

The second issue was that the BIOS on the WD1006V-SR2 drive controller didn't get along with my 386sx motherboard .

I disabled the card's BIOS and it's all good not.

Dos 3.3 Bay-bee!

That is Great ! Glad you figured it out.

The hard drive has a full help desk journal on it. Looks like it used to hold an oracle 6.X database and was professionally managed 1990-1998. The "KW-557" was that ide controller I was talking about.

02/03/96 I had just finished installing a second i/o board (KW-557) and modem
software for email, when I was startled to see a disk error. It
seemed that after six years a little preventative maintenance might
be in order. I ran Spinrite diagnostics, and it corrected the error
(presumably) through a low-level format, and then I found a few more
using the Western Digital verify function. I think this probably
would have been good enough, but I took these errors to be a gentle
nudge.

Having the ISA controller with the RLL controller gave them no end of disk errors over the next two years.

02/07/96 Geez, talk about a pain in the butt.

I opened up the case and reseated the drive cables several times,
just in the event that the connections were causing some difficulty.
I then reset the drive parameters to those specified above (which
turns out to be Western Digital drive type 06). The critical
parameter which is now changed is that the write precompensation is
now "none" -- changed from cylinder 300, which is what it was since
1990. I don't think this should have had a major impact, however.