[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Reading a Hard Disk

mem@unify.UUCP (Mark Mason) (11/04/89)

Hello,
I need some help with reading/writing sectors on a non-MSDOS
hard disk (no MSDOS partition table - I can't afford to run
fdisk on it).

I have a hard disk for a Tektronix workstation that needs a little
surgery. I need to be able to edit a couple of blocks so that
the workstation will be able to boot unix. Since this disk
was formatted with a WD controller (2005), I *think* that
I can read it on an IBM.

The drive is a Micropolis 1302 (20 Meg).

The fun part is that I cannot afford to overwrite the partition
tables using fdisk! I have looked through what manuals are available
to me, and I have not yet found a way to read a sector off a
non-MS-DOS hard disk. I know that it is possible (or format would
not work), but I don't know how.

I am willing to put a fair amount of work into writing whatever
necessary to accoumplish this, I just need some pointers on how
to do the reads and writes.

Thanks,
mem
-- 
mem@unify
tektronix!sequent!unify!mem <- works best
csusac!unify!mem
All opinions are my own, my employer hired me for facts.

Scott.Hass@p3.f20.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Scott Hass) (11/09/89)

 > I need some help with reading/writing sectors on a non-MSDOS
 > hard disk (no MSDOS partition table - I can't afford to run
 > fdisk on it).

  Norton utility version 2.01 has a prog. that may do what you want 
to do. It is called hardmod.
It will only read a maximum of 4 heads and 305 cylinders, but since the
partition info is on cyl. 0, head 0, it will probably work.

  Good luck



--  
Scott Hass via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH
UUCP: ...!osu-cis!n8emr!cmhgate!20.3!Scott.Hass
INET: Scott.Hass@p3.f20.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG