Consider using GSETUP on this machine.

You can find it on the simtel BBS archive.
https://archives.scovetta.com/pub/simtelnet-o … d/msdos/sysutl/

you want gsetup31.zip

It needs to be run from DOS, so use a bootable diskette.

Usually, there will be an option for "Type 47", which is "User defined type". You can manually supply Heads, Cyls, Sectors, and WritePrecomp (Should be 0, or 65535, for a compact flash card.)

There were options up to Type 49 but none of them let me type in my own settings. I did find configuration settings info for the hard drive (a Seagate 157A-1) but I cannot find a way to type in the data in BIOS.
Now let's see how to get this onto a a 5.25" floppy, because all I got is 3.5" drives (except for the one in this machine)

A very dirty trick:

You *CAN* format a 720k 3.5" diskette as if it were a 360k diskette, *IF* you do it in a 720k drive, AND, you have set the drive type as 360k in your bios.

You can then hook the 720k drive to your system, pretend it is a 360k 5.25" drive, and it will boot, and work.

wierd_w wrote on 2024-02-04, 22:47:

You can then hook the 720k drive to your system, pretend it is a 360k 5.25" drive, and it will boot, and work.

I don't have a spare 3.5" internal drive that's the problem. I only have some of those USB types.
Would be "easier" to take the 5.25" drive and connect it to another PC and copy that way.

[edit] well the original hard drive is very much dead, it won't even spin up, so that's that. But I still need the BIOPS info to be able to set up a new drive.

Well... However you manage to do it...

You will likely find that (since this is a 386, and an early one, from the sounds of it) it suffers the "512mb barrier" problem. EG, the version of the software INT13 handler its bios supplies, cannot handle large values for heads or cylinders, leading to the maximum addressable size being someplace around 504mb.

See this informative page for details.
https://www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/hard_disks.php

All is not lost if this is the case. You can still use an OLDER version of a kind of software called a Dynamic Drive Overlay. This is a small bit of software that installs itself into the very first sector of the drive, (normally reserved for the master boot record, and boot sector) that loads into memory, takes over INT13 with a software defined one, that allows for large disk handling.

Alternatively, you can look for a way to get XT-IDE bios installed, and allow it to interrogate the IDE chain, and set drives up. (Set the drive type to NONE, if you manage this route. The XT-IDE rom is a bootrom, and executes before the boot sector does, and can set everything up for you.)

A common method used by retro computer enthusiasts, is to use an NE2000 compatible ISA NIC, which has a socket for a 32k boot rom. XT-IDE is routinely put there. 😜 The ISA NIC then provides a very convenient way to get files in and out of the computer, since all you need is the dos network suppliment disk set, and a suitable packet driver. (Of which ,there are many many to pick from with a real NE2000 compatible card.)