Uncreative Labs

Joined: 04 Jul 2006 Posts: 21 Location: Hollywood, Florida

Does anyone have or know where I can get the utility/program to do a low-level format on a ST-225 with a Xebec controller card ?

I've tried the "DEBUG" procedure followed by "G=c800:5" and got nothing.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

BG

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

best guess use the xt diags disk.

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

with 3:1 ( fastest interleave is slow)., 30b/s
SLOWEr interleave lie 4:1 or 5:1 is much faster maybe 100m or even 130b/s ( determine by test)

first the debug will not work because the xebec is not set up like the wd card and similar cards
second: programs for the AT and others will noit work on an xt
llfmt and similar

best guess use the xt diags disk.

remeber the wd LL fmt ( xt) and the AT LL fmt are not compatible.

possibility a copy of disk manager MIGHT do a ll fmt try ver 4 or so
not sure.

the jumpers or switches located on the rear center of the xebec
board determine the formatting you want either 615 and 4 or 612 and 4

I recall an old disk managed dis DID and WAS able to id those settings.
it looked at the card/drive and was ready to LL format the drive
as one of 4 drives, 2 of them only 10 megs capacity.

the interleave of the xebec is quite slow maybe 5 or 6.
and performance will be sluggish.
the xebec is sort of an analog board, so don't mess with the potetiometers with the red paint ( glyptol) sealant

a wd wx1002 card or other xt wd controller will go as fast as 3:1 ( top speed for an xt) best speed, but on a genuine xt 4.77mhz
then a lower interleave , either 4 or 5 is FASTER. spintest or an early copy of spinrite will determine that.
the higher numbers like 3:1 wioll give a 30b/s transfer
the 4: 0r 5:1 ( selected by testing) will give as high as 130b/s

unless you are realy dedicated don't use the xebec card.

Joined: 04 Jul 2006 Posts: 21 Location: Hollywood, Florida

Thanks for the response folks.

I'm not dedicated to the Xebec it just happens to be what I have handy. I use these computers as backups for systems we service. I was building up 2 spare units this weekend, one has an Everex 390 card that started giving me trouble so I swapped it with the Xebec I happened to have handy. I think it's time to get some more WDC cards Smile

Thanks again for the help.

BG

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

the wd wx1 later version and the wx2 earlier version both have a lot os similarities
do not use a card with an older bios than the one you LL formatted the drive with. you might plug the drive into a controller one or two cliicks older and get
"funny faces" and other non -ascii text on the screen.

bioses are inmterchangable. the smaller chip often is propritsary
meaning it supports only 1-2 drives. ( smaller chip does not fill the socket!)

the wx1-1002 and GEN and wd 1004 cards are pretty much the same.
assuming the first mentioned card wx1-1002 has the superformatter bios,
when you type debug g=c800:5 the bios message and version pops up

the 8 row of jumpers is the drive table
the top jumper, when closed permits open formatting.
You enter the drive paprameters st-225 615-4-616-11-5 ( never use 3 as specified by seagate) ( fills the drive with stp or molasses)

never partition the drive with the LL fmt util.

th ere should be a text file on this forum that I uploaded.
on all this.

rll drives may require reformatting every year-- been there done that.

st-225 drives fail because a chip on the pcb dies.
some st-213 drives have the same board, look for "st-225" in tiny letters
by the center hole.
st-251 drives fail because of "stiction" on the platters.

a st-238 can be reformatted as a st-225

if things fail, jiggle the cables and try again.

mniscribe drives are ok but run hot as hell.

try adding a small fan if the systems will be on continuously
even a small fan aimed wrong, will keep things cooler.

a isa VGA card will work in an xt ( insulate the extra fingers)
set mb switches to NO VIDEO

Joined: 04 Jul 2006 Posts: 21 Location: Hollywood, Florida

wdegroot,

well I think you've covered everything Smile

(that's a compliment)
thanks very much for your help and the information.

you have a nice day.

BG

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

get the text files on this board, if they are still here.

it was an article someone wrote to explain the use and setup of xt hd controllers. I d/l it 20+ years ago and posted it here.

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:45 am

Walter et al.,

They're still here. Even better, they've been categorized and indexed. (Thanks goes to mf_2 for working on the database idea that we didn't use.)

http://www.uncreativelabs.net/textfiles/

The stuff you want is under:
http://www.uncreativelabs.net/textfiles/#drives

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

ok I looked at the text file seems I had a senior moment.
and forgot my comments and posting.
must be mine as I recall richard driggers and the sparta pcb.

Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 5

I read the referenced document, which says that this works
with an ST-225 which is a 20 meg type 2 drive. I thought the
PC/XT Xebec controller would only work with a 10 Meg Type 1
drive ? If it works with a ST-225 drive do you get the full
20 MB available ?

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

i do not remember "exactly" ( senior moment)
but i DO REMEMBER that an old disk manager would SEE the drive and
let you try various settings until the right settings for the drive wer obtained.

just stop the proceedings if the drive match the real numbers of that drive
and don't LL format the drive.
many used disk manager to LL format a drive on an xt.
trouble is disk manager wanted to do some screwy partitioning and install system files on the drive, as well as a disk manager driver utility.

IF you can get disk manager JUST to do a Low Level format.
and follow that with a conventional --dos-- fdisk format , it is ok.

the 4 jumpers or switches are in the middle rear of the xebec controller.
near the bracket.
it's possible some only support the 10 meg drives.

Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 23 Location: Poland

Mikey, if your Xbec have DIP's, then it can handle ST-255.
If it don't have - then it will only handle type 1 drive.

Also you should set DIP's correctly.
I'll dig out settings for Xbec if you need.