Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!samsung!rex!uflorida!haven!udel!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!jc58+
From: jc58+@andrew.cmu.edu (Johnny J. Chin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: HELP!!! Hard Drive Problems on AT!!!
Message-ID: <MbD2x0S00UhWI0xJ5V@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 10 Nov 90 16:48:00 GMT
References: <47348@bsu-ucs.uucp>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 40
In-Reply-To: <47348@bsu-ucs.uucp>


>       (It's an 80286 VLSI 12 megahertz motherboard, AMI BIOS (11/89),
>       Western Digital XT-GEN controller, Multi-Drive II floppy controller,
>       1.44 M drive and 360 K drive, 1200 baud generic modem, Compaq CGA
>       card)

First of all, why are you using a Western Digital XT-GEN controller and a
seperate floppy controller to operate the drives?  The Western Digital XT-GEN
uses IRQ5 and *NOT* IRQ14 which all 286/386 computers use.  IRQ5 on 286/386's
are used by LPT2.  Also, the BIOS on this card will sometimes (not everytime)
conflict with the system BIOS which is on the motherboard.  They both have
instructions on low-level formatting the drive.  The BIOS on your system board
will have drive parameters set in CMOS, while the one on the XT-GEN card will
store the drive parameters on track 0.

>            - "Seek error on drive C"
>            - "General failure error on drive D"
>            - "General failure error on drive E"
>            - "General failure error on drive F"

These errors are caused by the conflict in the parameter settings which I've
explained above.

In summary, I strongly suggest that you get the XT-GEN and the seperate floppy
controller *OUT* of the computer and replace it with a Western Digital HD/FD
controller (I believe the model # is WD-1003-VMM2).

      __________                                          ___
     /          \                                    /   /    /_/ / /\/
    _/  /   /   /                                 __/.  /__  / / / / /
   /     /     / "Happy Computing ..."
  /           /                        Internet: Johnny.J.Chin@andrew.cmu.edu
 /  -------  /  4730 Centre Ave. #412  BITnet:   jc58@andrew
 \__________/   Pittsburgh, PA  15213  UUCP:    ...!uunet!andrew.cmu.edu!jc58
  Computer Dr.
                          Carnegie Mellon University

 "If you don't like having backups ... try driving without your spare tire."
______________________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer:     The views expressed herein are STRICTLY my own, and not CMU's.