Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!lll-winken!ncis.tis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hpfcso!hpldola!ppa
From: ppa@hpldola.HP.COM (Paul P. Austgen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: AMI BIOS vs. ESDI problem
Message-ID: <11250114@hpldola.HP.COM>
Date: 11 Dec 89 16:59:32 GMT
References: <340045@hpsgpa.HP.COM>
Organization: HP Elec. Design Div. -ColoSpgs
Lines: 19

I have an IBM ESDI 70 Mb disk and a Western Digital WD1005A-ARM
controller that came out of a PC-RT.  Does anyone have any
suggestions on how to use it with DOS and an AT?

There doesn't seem to be any code at c800:5 to do a low level
format.  I have reformatted it using a disk type allowing for
user definable parameters, but about 10% of the sectors are
marked as bad, which seems unlikely.  I can format it. more or
less, as a type with 17 sectors per track, and even boot from it,
but this seems like a terrible waste of disk space.

I have Disk Technician, but I don't think it is designed to
handle ESDI stuff.  An earlier statement in this string about
being unable to format these beasts from user parameters or
generic format packages seems to be correct in my recent
experiences.  But on the other hand, without a routine on the
controller, I don't know what to do.  

Does anyone know what I have here, and what to do?