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From: mike@relgyro.stanford.edu (Mike Macgirvin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: ATT6300+ hard disk--physical reformat??
Message-ID: <229@helens.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 9 Jun 89 18:59:05 GMT
References: <92@cameron.cs.duke.edu>
Sender: news@helens.STANFORD.EDU
Reply-To: mike@relgyro.STANFORD.EDU (Mike Macgirvin)
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Organization: Stanford Relativity Gyro Experiment (GP-B)
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In article <92@cameron.cs.duke.edu> rfk@dslrt.uucp (Bob Krick) writes:
>
>I need some information to do a low-level, physical reformat of the hard 
>disk in an ATT6300+.  The system has the original 20Mb drive (ST225) and 
>controller (Western Digital).  The BIOS is v1.04 and I am running DOS3.3.
>
>Is there a routine in ROM for physical formatting the hard drive?  If so,
>what is the starting address for running the routine with DEBUG?  Or, do 
>I need the "System Diagnostics Disk" which I don't have?  If so, where 
>can I get the disk or program?  
>
	The ROM on the HD controller is able to do a low-level format.
You can initiate this with:
	A:\>debug
	-g=c800:5

	if the machine locks up, reboot, and try 'g=c800:6'. One or the
other works in most of the PC's I've seen. Note that several controllers
will also ask you about number of cylinders, heads, write precomp, and other
stuff. Try to have this info available when you start the program. Some
newer ones (used with AT or 386 machines) will pick up this info from the
system EEPROM, so use your setup utility (CTRL-ALT-ESC {?}) to select the
correct drive type first. When in doubt, call your local clone supplier
and ask about the disk characteristics. Most of those I've talked to have
been extremely helpful about digging up this info.
	-------------------------------------------------------
	     "There must be some kind of way out of here." 
        Mike Macgirvin - mike@relgyro.stanford.edu (36.64.0.50)
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