(SOLVED) Old MFM hard disk - Type (xx)? \ VOGONS

(SOLVED) Old MFM hard disk - Type (xx)?

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First post, by Jed118

Posted on 2022-09-27, 08:49

Jed118 Offline

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Hey guys, I recently lost the parameters of BIOS on an old 286 - I was able to set everything except the hard disk parameters. The BIOS only allows TYPEs of hard drives. It is a Priam V185. Last it booted, I seem to recall it being about 65 Mb (formatted). STASON tells me it's an 85 Mb drive, with CHS of 1166, 7, 17. No way to put that in, only by TYPE.

Does anyone know what TYPE this drive is?

*edit I tried Type 26 and it got to Starting MS-DOS and got stuck there. Presumably that is not the right type...

https://vintage-pc.tripod.com/types.html

*Solving edit - an eBay listing that had the CHS parameters written on the drive in permanent marker led me to it being a Type 19.

Now to figure out these Mn-02 Li batteries..,

Last edited by Jed118 on 2022-09-27, 09:09. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 1 of 4, by konc

Posted on 2022-09-27, 09:07

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Try type 19 or any type in your BIOS that has CHS 1024/7/17. 1166 doesn't seem correct.

Reply 2 of 4, by Jed118

Posted on 2022-09-27, 09:09

Jed118 Offline

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konc wrote on 2022-09-27, 09:07:

Try type 19 or any type in your BIOS that has CHS 1024/7/17. 1166 doesn't seem correct.

Haha yep - this helped https://www.ebay.com/itm/171717583117

Thanks for confirming!

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Reply 3 of 4, by Grzyb

Posted on 2022-09-27, 15:30

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CSC Hard Drive Bible also says 1166 cylinders...

The attachment priam.png is no longer available

Type 19 is sure to work, but not to the full capacity.
Once upon a time, I had an MFM drive with >1024 cylinders, and got to use it fully - using SpeedStor.
The boot partition must be within the first 1024 cyls, the rest is special SpeedStor partition - accessed via SSTOR.SYS.

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Reply 4 of 4, by Jed118

Posted on 2022-09-29, 08:06

Jed118 Offline

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There's DOS 3.3 and Windows 2.1 on it, as well as scanner software - I'm not willing to reformat it to get a few more MB. 33 Mb free on the drive... what to install, what to install, so many possibilities!

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