nomad@orstcs.cs.ORST.EDU (07/14/87)
A while ago I posted a note about some problems I was having with
st238s on an original IBM PC. (original as in 64k motherboard w/new ROM
BIOS). The problems included grinding noises and format failures.
The solutions to both problems have been found. The grinding noises
went away when I made a new cable. The formating problems were a bit harder to
find.
It seems that PC-DOS 3.1 doesn't like the combination of wd1002-27x
controller and st238 drive(s). In order to format them, you *must* move your
config.sys (if you have one) to something else and create one with only the
following line:
buffers=99
then you can format the drives successfully. Why this is, I don't know. All
I know is that it worked. Note that if you have anything else in your
config.sys file it won't work. (I found that out the hard way). I also don't
know if I have to leave the buffers=99 in the config.sys now that I have
the drive formatted. I can afford the memory, so I am not going to remove it.
I would like to thank Archie at Western Digital and Julian Whiteagle
(sp?) at Segate for all the help they gave in tracking down these problems. I
have found that the wd1002-27x is an excellent RLL controller with well done
low level formatting routines. I just wish that WD had one with the floppy
controller built in. (They have one for the AT, but not the PC/XT, <SIGH>).
Aside from the above problems, my st238s have worked fine, and even
tolerated some pretty bad abuse when I had forgotten to park the heads
<GASP>. I recommend both devices. (No, I don't have anything to do with
either companies, I just use their stuff.) The technical support people,
though busy (lots of time on hold - on 800 numbers) did a good and thurough
job (which is why they were so busy) and didn't laugh at me once. :-)
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