pha@sparc51.hri.com (Paul Anderson) (06/13/91)
All the following refers to the demo disk that
I ftp'd from plains.nodak. I verified correct
download by downloading several times and diffing
the resulting image. Written to disk using rawrite.exe
from same source. No errors or problems in ftp, kermit, or
rawrite.
Software:
Minix Demo disk for IBM PC
Hardware:
386-33-64K-4Meg, original IBM monochrome, no-name AT
multi I/O, WD-1003 2:1 HD/FD controller. MB uses C&T
chipset and is made in Taiwan. Has AMD 386.
1 360K HH floppy. 1 Micropolis 1325 (86meg) MFM drive.
HD formatted using DM (disk manager). HD is formatted
2:1, and works fine with DOS. The 86M HD has a number
of bad tracks (track 0-30 or so), but these are in a separate
partition, and MSDOS has no problems.
Also tried a 20meg Seagate, also formatted with the
same DM program.
Problem:
With 'normal' MS-DOS configuration, attempts to boot
results in: "floppy disk error - auto reboot" after
initial message at top of screen. (case a)
If I remove the hard drive from the configuration table,
Minix comes up with multiline request to, among other things,
type '=' to boot minix. Attempting to do so, however, results
in a failure to read the partition info from the HD, followed
by a reboot. (case b)
If I physically remove the HD and remove from config table,
same thing as (b). If I swap the 86 meg HD with a 20meg Seagate,
same thing as (b). If I swap the 360K floppy with 1.2M, same thing as (b).
If I use an original XT, floppy only, 640K, ATI wondercard, XT floppy cont,
it gives me the '=' prompt, but hangs when attempting to
come up (similar to (b), but no messages at all).
I've got several questions:
1) I'm going to try formatting the 20meg seagate with MSDOS
tools only tonight. Are there any other suggestions of
things that I can try?
2) how might I run floppy only in a machine with a HD controller?
3) The controller is borrowed from a friend, and I need
to purchase my own. What MFM-1:1-AT 16 bit with floppy
controller should I buy for ultimate compatiblity with
Minix? I see from the Compatibility sheet that the WD-1006-SR2
controller has been tried - is this a good choice?
I very much appreciate any suggestions people might have. I
want to get the demo disk going before buying the real thing
from PH. My apologies in advance if I missed earlier discussion
covering this. I've been watching this group for quite some
time (off and on) and haven't seen this problem discussed.
Please Reply to: pha@hri.com, and I will summarize answers and
suggestions in a week or two, and if I am successful, I will
add a new entry to the compatibility list!
Paul Anderson