Half-Saint wrote on Today, 10:44:

The difference between type 17 and stason is just landing zone 977 vs. nothing. I switched to using type 17.

It doesn't matter - MR535 uses voice-coil = auto-park.

I did as you guys suggested and managed to boot from a floppy into DOS. Was surprised to see that I can access C: fine. I don't know why the system won't boot. I tried running sys a: c: and despite DOS saying "System transferred", it still says "Non-system disk or disk error replace and strike any key when ready" at boot.

"SYS A: C:" only affects the C: partition.
There may still be some garbage in the MBR - you can try "FDISK /MBR", and make sure the partition is set Active.

I tried "fdisk /mbr" but that didn't help so I tried to format the hard drive via "format c: /s" but got an error "Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk unusable".

So something is obviously wrong with the hard drive. Hopefully LLF will help.

Success! I low-level formatted the drive, ran FDISK from a DOS floppy, created a FAT32 partition, formatted the drive with /s parameter and was able to boot into DOS successfully afterwards 😀

Thanks to everyone that helped!

Run a scan disk and see if there are any bad sectors. But awesome work getting the drive working again.

Half-Saint wrote on Today, 15:05:

created a FAT32 partition

I think it's FAT16.
Is it even possible to create FAT32 on such a small disk?

Anyway, now you can experiment a bit, and find the optimal interleave factor for that system...

chrismeyer6 wrote on Today, 16:57:

Run a scan disk and see if there are any bad sectors.

First and foremost, during LLF, it's a good idea to enter the bad sectors listed on the sticker.

Some sectors were weak already at the factory, and they will cause random errors - even if tools like SCANDISK may sometimes fail to detect them.

Grzyb wrote on Today, 18:27:

chrismeyer6 wrote on Today, 16:57:

Run a scan disk and see if there are any bad sectors.

First and foremost, during LLF, it's a good idea to enter the bad sectors listed on the sticker.

Some sectors were weak already at the factory, and they will cause random errors - even if tools like SCANDISK may sometimes fail to detect them.

Yes, it's FAT32. FAT16 wouldn't let me create a partition bigger than 32MB.

BIOS LLF tool won't let me enter bad sectors, I can only mark the whole track which is a bit of a waste. I also found recommendations online NOT to mark bad sectors during LLF as they will show pu during FORMAT or SCANDISK will find them.

Anyway, according to the factory sticker there are two bad sectors.

Half-Saint wrote on 45 minutes ago:

Yes, it's FAT32. FAT16 wouldn't let me create a partition bigger than 32MB.

FAT16 supports up to 2 GB.
What DOS version are you using?

Half-Saint wrote on 45 minutes ago:

Yes, it's FAT32. FAT16 wouldn't let me create a partition bigger than 32MB.

No, it's not FAT32. FAT32 is FAT with 32-bit cluster numbers, a format introduced with an OEM service release of Windows 95.

You are using FAT16 with 32-bit sector numbers. This is partition type 6 (called "BIGDOS" by the classic Norton Utilities). This type has been introduced with the enhanced Compaq OEM version of MS-DOS 3.3 called Compaq MS-DOS 3.31, and also exists in vanilla MS-DOS since MS-DOS 4.0. There is no need to use 32-bit cluster numbers on your partition, as the CHKDSK output clearly shows that you only have around 20.000 clusters, which perfectly fits into 16 bits.

mkarcher wrote on 33 minutes ago:

Half-Saint wrote on 45 minutes ago:

Yes, it's FAT32. FAT16 wouldn't let me create a partition bigger than 32MB.

No, it's not FAT32. FAT32 is FAT with 32-bit cluster numbers, a format introduced with an OEM service release of Windows 95.

You are using FAT16 with 32-bit sector numbers. This is partition type 6 (called "BIGDOS" by the classic Norton Utilities). This type has been introduced with the enhanced Compaq OEM version of MS-DOS 3.3 called Compaq MS-DOS 3.31, and also exists in vanilla MS-DOS since MS-DOS 4.0. There is no need to use 32-bit cluster numbers on your partition, as the CHKDSK output clearly shows that you only have around 20.000 clusters, which perfectly fits into 16 bits.

Pardon my ignorance, haven't had to deal with FAT16 for about 30 years. I should have worded my reply differently - I remember not being able to make bigger partitions in DOS 3.3 that my parents PC used back in the 80s (I know DOS version because I still have those 5,25" boot disks somewhere). All I had at hand was one DOS 6.22 boot disk so I used its FDISK utility to partition the HDD etc.