Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!geac!contact!zooid!dve From: dve@zooid.UUCP (David Mason) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: RLL controller... Message-ID: Date: 8 Oct 90 23:01:40 GMT Organization: here Lines: 53 I posted this question a few days ago, but I think there was a problem, so... I bought a Western Digital clone (licensed chipset) RLL controller for my formerly MFM drive. The drive is a Micropolis full height 1325 70mb 28ms unit with 1024 cylinders, 8 heads, wpcomp is 512 (I'm not sure what this last one is so please don't ask me to elaborate). The controller has a built in BIOS which contains a formatting program (at address cc00:5). However, I was not able to successfully use the BIOS formatter. For example, when I first started it, it listed the stats as all zeros (cylinders, etc). Then I chose the option to change the setup and ste it to match my drive types. When I went back in they were wrong again - set to something like 623 cylinders, etc. I then disabled the BIOS and used the SpeedStor program. I WAS able to format the drive and DOS format it within Speedstor to 110 megs, but when I rebooted my machine the AMI BIOS didn't recognize the drive and neither did FDISK. I tried setting the CMOS to my drive type (36 in this case, which is for MFM) and then used the "user-defined" drive type and set sectors to 26 (or 27, I forget which, but I tried both). Still no luck. I had to put the old controller back in and restore. I really would like to get this controller working but I don't want to go throught the backup/format/restore procedure until I have some concrete ideas. The controller is called a "WA6-VR" and is a 1:1 16-bit floppy/hard disk RLL only controller. I believe it is the same as the Western Digital WA-1006. The computer is a 25mhz 386 with no caching and a recent AMI BIOS. I tried disabling the shadow RAM, etc, all to no avail. If there are ANY ideas out there, I would sincerely appreciate them. Someone suggested to me that setting the AMI drive type to 0 and letting the controller BIOS control the drive would work, but I didn't think this would be right with an RLL controller. I know some SCSI and ESDI drives work this way but I am under the impression that RLL works under DOS and I think that letting the controller control the drive might cause some problems with utility programs that depend on the CMOS settings. Let me say right here that, yes, I know the Adaptec ARLL controller is realy nifty but I can't afford one right now so that's not a solution. And also I know some people believe that formatting an MFM drive to RLL is evil but I also happen to know that even if it is a bad idea it will format and work RLL ... at least for a while (until, if the drive is too weak for RLL, it eventually starts degenerating). I really need a solution.. my MFM drive is too small and I can't afford another right now, and also the MFM controller I have is 2:1 and I need the extra speed that the 1:1 and RLL controller provides. Thanks in advance for any suggestions (I HOPE!!!)