Miracle Hard Drive problem (Hard Disk Replace)

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Outsoft
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Re: Winny problem

Post by Outsoft »

Silvester wrote:
Outsoft wrote:If I want to replace the internal hard drive which model I need?

I see that the Winny mount a 3,5" Hard Drive and not a 5,25" as I suppose (not the ST-506/ST-412).

I need to repair another one that I found.

Thanks a lot.

Best regards.
Miracle hard drive supports four different drive types. The drive ident is read from port 322 (usual PC hardware port for first drive) and used to ascertain drive parameters from table below.

If drive identity not matched then default is last column.

HTH

Code: Select all

; Table of drive specific data, columns relate to drive type found
;                32M   32M   40M   40M

L0E98   dc.w    $CFCF,$D5D5,$DFDF,$5F5F         ;drive type identifiers
        dc.w    $0007,$0006,$0006,$0006         ;interleave
        dc.w    $0004,$0004,$0004,$0004         ;sectors per logical block
        dc.w    $0011,$001B,$001A,$001A         ;no. of sectors per cylinder
L0EB8   dc.w    $0004,$0003,$0004,$0004         ;no. of heads
        dc.w    $03AD,$030E,$0303,$030E         ;no. of cylinders
        dc.w    $03B0,$0334,$032A,$0334         ;max no. of cylinders
        dc.w    $01D6,$0080,$0080,$0080         ;cylinder for write precomp
        dc.w    $01D6,$030E,$0303,$030E         ;cylinder to start RWC


; Hardware address
; ================
; A movem.l $00000000,rx-ry instruction pages the ROM and interface in.
;
; $0000E000     Page ROM and drive out.                     ie,  tst.w
; $0000F000     Read data port.                 (port 320)  ie,  move.w
; $0000F200     Read drive status.              (port 321)  ie,  move.w
; $0000F400     Read drive type.                (port 322)  ie,  move.w
; $0000F800     Write to data port.             (port 320)  ie,  tst.w $00(a0,d0.w)    
;               d0.w = 2 x data value (0-255)
; $0000FA00     Reset drive.                    (port 321)  ie,  tst.w
; $0000FC00     Select drive.                   (port 322)  ie,  tst.w

I see that the Drive mostly used on Miracle Hard Drive system is a Miniscribe 8450 RLL 40Mb 3.5".

I've bought a SEAGATE ST138 33MB 3.5" RLL Drive, in working state, that I think It will be OK.

Thanks a lot!


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Outsoft
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Re: Winny problem

Post by Outsoft »

Silvester wrote:
Outsoft wrote:If I want to replace the internal hard drive which model I need?

I see that the Winny mount a 3,5" Hard Drive and not a 5,25" as I suppose (not the ST-506/ST-412).

I need to repair another one that I found.

Thanks a lot.

Best regards.
Miracle hard drive supports four different drive types. The drive ident is read from port 322 (usual PC hardware port for first drive) and used to ascertain drive parameters from table below.

If drive identity not matched then default is last column.

HTH

Code: Select all

; Table of drive specific data, columns relate to drive type found
;                32M   32M   40M   40M

L0E98   dc.w    $CFCF,$D5D5,$DFDF,$5F5F         ;drive type identifiers
        dc.w    $0007,$0006,$0006,$0006         ;interleave
        dc.w    $0004,$0004,$0004,$0004         ;sectors per logical block
        dc.w    $0011,$001B,$001A,$001A         ;no. of sectors per cylinder
L0EB8   dc.w    $0004,$0003,$0004,$0004         ;no. of heads
        dc.w    $03AD,$030E,$0303,$030E         ;no. of cylinders
        dc.w    $03B0,$0334,$032A,$0334         ;max no. of cylinders
        dc.w    $01D6,$0080,$0080,$0080         ;cylinder for write precomp
        dc.w    $01D6,$030E,$0303,$030E         ;cylinder to start RWC


; Hardware address
; ================
; A movem.l $00000000,rx-ry instruction pages the ROM and interface in.
;
; $0000E000     Page ROM and drive out.                     ie,  tst.w
; $0000F000     Read data port.                 (port 320)  ie,  move.w
; $0000F200     Read drive status.              (port 321)  ie,  move.w
; $0000F400     Read drive type.                (port 322)  ie,  move.w
; $0000F800     Write to data port.             (port 320)  ie,  tst.w $00(a0,d0.w)    
;               d0.w = 2 x data value (0-255)
; $0000FA00     Reset drive.                    (port 321)  ie,  tst.w
; $0000FC00     Select drive.                   (port 322)  ie,  tst.w
Finally found time to connect "SEAGATE ST138 33MB 3.5" RLL Drive".

First don't spin, so I kick it a little and now start perfectly ;)

The Winny check it and boot, so I simply need to format it.

But...I've tried 4/5 time without success: all the time the system advice that the media is BAD.

Miracle drives comes pre-formatted...they use some special parameters for initalize the drive?

This HDD works perfectly on DOS and can be formatted and used without problem.

There is a way to solve this problem? I suppose that need that a Partition will be created as we do on the QUBIDE. Exist a command that made it?

Antother thing: the original MINISCRIBE have a LIGHT / STATE of the HDD connected on the disk, with the Seagate I find a similar part but I'm not sure is the same ;)
s-l1600 (5).jpg
s-l1600 (4).jpg
s-l1600 (3).jpg
s-l1600 (2).jpg
Thanks for all the help.


Derek_Stewart
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Re: Miracle Hard Drive problem (Hard Disk Replace)

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Hi,

Not good idea to kick or knock hard drives, you may of damaged the Plattens and Read/Write Heads.

But I always thought the Miracle Hard drive Interface had to have a matched hard drive that had been low level formatted on a PC.

You have to connect the Hard Drive Interface to an ISA based PC running DOS and jump to the format rountine using DEBUG.

Then put Interface and hard drive back into the QL and format from QDOS.

I might be wrong about this, but I have a MIracle Hard drive that needs setting up I will do this when I have time.


Regards,

Derek
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Outsoft
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Re: Miracle Hard Drive problem (Hard Disk Replace)

Post by Outsoft »

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,

Not good idea to kick or knock hard drives, you may of damaged the Plattens and Read/Write Heads.

But I always thought the Miracle Hard drive Interface had to have a matched hard drive that had been low level formatted on a PC.

You have to connect the Hard Drive Interface to an ISA based PC running DOS and jump to the format rountine using DEBUG.

Then put Interface and hard drive back into the QL and format from QDOS.

I might be wrong about this, but I have a MIracle Hard drive that needs setting up I will do this when I have time.
I can send all to you: I don't have a PC with ISA board and that kind of controller :-(


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Re: Miracle Hard Drive problem (Hard Disk Replace)

Post by Outsoft »

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,

Not good idea to kick or knock hard drives, you may of damaged the Plattens and Read/Write Heads.

But I always thought the Miracle Hard drive Interface had to have a matched hard drive that had been low level formatted on a PC.

You have to connect the Hard Drive Interface to an ISA based PC running DOS and jump to the format rountine using DEBUG.

Then put Interface and hard drive back into the QL and format from QDOS.

I might be wrong about this, but I have a MIracle Hard drive that needs setting up I will do this when I have time.
I can send all to you: I don't have a PC with ISA board and that kind of controller :-(


Derek_Stewart
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Re: Miracle Hard Drive problem (Hard Disk Replace)

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Outsoft wrote: I can send all to you: I don't have a PC with ISA board and that kind of controller :-(
HI Simone,

I am a little busy at present, with the Q68 production.


Regards,

Derek
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Re: Miracle Hard Drive problem (Hard Disk Replace)

Post by Outsoft »

Derek_Stewart wrote:
Outsoft wrote: I can send all to you: I don't have a PC with ISA board and that kind of controller :-(
HI Simone,

I am a little busy at present, with the Q68 production.
I imagined, so I'm selling on eBay ;)

I've just one that is perfect ;)


Silvester
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Re: Miracle Hard Drive problem (Hard Disk Replace)

Post by Silvester »

I guess this might be too late now, however...

The problem might be that the drive ID is not recognised and the default parameters used for a 40M drive fails the FORMAT.

Try running attached program which will tell you identity of drive attached to MHD.

If you can get your drive statistics (as per table entries) it may be possible to do version for your drive.

Also if your drive is slow and you are using SGC then it may be timing problem. The original MHD driver did not check handshaking with ISA interface, this was quicker and OK to do until SGC arrived with its fast cache.

I did the modified version 2.08S (2.07S) which did handshake for some SGC/MHD machines which had problems. The 2.07 version is a LRESPR version of the driver, try the 2.07S version attached to see if it makes a difference.

The LRESPR version can easily be patched with your drive ident and statistics to try to get something working (if that works the ROM version can then be changed).

BTW your drive current consumption looks high (5V 1.2A, 12V 2.0A) I don't know whether your MHD PSU may struggle with that. May be worth checking voltage levels.

(My MHD drive is WD 384P (ident DFDF) with ISA card WD1004-27X, the drive rated as 5V 0.6A, 12V 0.8A)
Attachments
MHDtype.zip
(6.72 KiB) Downloaded 145 times


David
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Outsoft
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Re: Miracle Hard Drive problem (Hard Disk Replace)

Post by Outsoft »

Silvester wrote:I guess this might be too late now, however...

The problem might be that the drive ID is not recognised and the default parameters used for a 40M drive fails the FORMAT.

Try running attached program which will tell you identity of drive attached to MHD.

If you can get your drive statistics (as per table entries) it may be possible to do version for your drive.

Also if your drive is slow and you are using SGC then it may be timing problem. The original MHD driver did not check handshaking with ISA interface, this was quicker and OK to do until SGC arrived with its fast cache.

I did the modified version 2.08S (2.07S) which did handshake for some SGC/MHD machines which had problems. The 2.07 version is a LRESPR version of the driver, try the 2.07S version attached to see if it makes a difference.

The LRESPR version can easily be patched with your drive ident and statistics to try to get something working (if that works the ROM version can then be changed).

BTW your drive current consumption looks high (5V 1.2A, 12V 2.0A) I don't know whether your MHD PSU may struggle with that. May be worth checking voltage levels.

(My MHD drive is WD 384P (ident DFDF) with ISA card WD1004-27X, the drive rated as 5V 0.6A, 12V 0.8A)
I've find another Miniscribe drive that is EQUAL to the original one that is on the Winny, we can try with this one.

Don't understand well what I have to do with this program: it can help me to format the drive or you have to patch and send me a new rom for let the drive be compatibile with the Winny?

I've my working Winny attached to a SGC and naturally works well, I need to attach this second one on the SGC QL and try to format it again to see If It can works?

Thanks a lot for the support ;)


Silvester
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Re: Miracle Hard Drive problem (Hard Disk Replace)

Post by Silvester »

Outsoft wrote: I've find another Miniscribe drive that is EQUAL to the original one that is on the Winny, we can try with this one.
Then hopefully it should just work :-)
Don't understand well what I have to do with this program: it can help me to format the drive or you have to patch and send me a new rom for let the drive be compatibile with the Winny?
Version 2.07 is a LRESPR version which will override ROM copy (which gets copied to ram on initialisation). The idea was to use it to experiment with, in an attempt to get your unknown drive working. The Basic program just let you know what the ISA card/drive identity is set to.

Then you need find out what your drive parameters are sectors/heads/cylinders etc.

The drive parameter table in version 2.07 can then be patched liked this:

Code: Select all

100 addr=ALCHP(40) : LBYTES flp1_mhd_bin,addr : CALL addr
110 id=PEEK_W(addr+38) : RECHP addr
120 ch%=FOPEN('flp1_v2_07S.bin')
130 WPUT#ch%\3562;id
140 INPUT 'interleave ='!d
150 WPUT#ch%\3570,d
160 INPUT 'sectors per logical block ='!d
170 WPUT#ch%\3578,d
180 INPUT 'sectors per cylinder ='!d
190 WPUT#ch%\3586,d
200 INPUT 'heads ='!d
210 WPUT#ch%\3594,d
220 INPUT 'cylinders ='!d
230 WPUT#ch%\3602,d
240 INPUT 'maximum cylinders ='!d
250 WPUT#ch%\3610,d
260 INPUT 'cylinder for write precomp ='!d
270 WPUT#ch%\3618,d
280 INPUT 'cylinder for reduced write current ='!d
290 WPUT#ch%\3626,d
300 CLOSE#ch%


David
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