Old Seagate Drive

[computek]

I have an old seagate drive that came into me. pc no longer starts up . When I say old - this fella is kinda 1st generation stuff

Drive Model is ST 157A (see attch images)

Condition of drive is ok . Have tried connecting via pc-3000 in PATA but to no avail..I'm assuming maybe its just too old?

Would be handy if I could recover or figure a way...Maybe set up an old 386 and slave it?

Attachments

[Tomset]

Need old PC-3000 ISA end old utility
http://www.acelab.ru/dep.pc/doc.pc3000d ... ST157A.pdf
оr crack ISA, DOS end old PC (IDE 5V)

[maximus]

Disclaimer: This drive is so old that the following could be wrong and not work, but the only way to know is to try. The computer BIOS does not have to properly recognize the drive, but it must at least recognize that the drive is attached.

If the drive is OK, then you should not need a really old PC, just one with IDE connector. On a computer that has IDE, boot a Linux live CD or USB with the drive attached, and you should have full access. It does not matter if the BIOS recognizes it properly, as you are not booting from it. The Linux OS should properly detect the drive and give access.

[fzabkar]

If Linux doesn't detect the drive correctly, I would examine the drive's current CHS translation mode (usually set by the BIOS to match the drive type selection) against the CHS parameters in the partition table or boot sector.

7.11 INITIALIZE DEVICE PARAMETERS

COMMAND CODE - 91h

TYPE - Mandatory.

PROTOCOL - Non-data.

INPUTS - The Sector Count register specifies the number of logical sectors per logical track, and the Device/Head register specifies the maximum head number.

NORMAL OUTPUTS - None required.

ERROR OUTPUTS - Aborted Command if the device does not support the requested CHS translation.

PREREQUISITES - None.

DESCRIPTION - This command enables the host to set the number of logical sectors per track and the number of logical heads minus 1 per logical cylinder for the current CHS translation mode.

Upon receipt of the command, the device sets the BSY bit, saves the parameters, clears the BSY bit, and generates an interrupt.

A device shall support the CHS translation described in words 1, 3, and 6 of the IDENTIFY DEVICE information. Support of other CHS translations is optional.

If the requested CHS translation is not supported, the device shall set the Error bit in the Status register and set the Aborted Command bit in the Error register before clearing the BSY bit in the Status register.

If the requested CHS translation is not supported, the device shall fail all media access commands with an ID Not Found error until a valid CHS translation is established.

Attachments

[maximus]

Link to similar case with positive results:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35277

[rogfanther]

Well, this seems a good reason for me to keep that old 486 in the attic.

[computek]

Well, this seems a good reason for me to keep that old 486 in the attic.

thats what i was thinking would be the simpler approach - I have or two buried away in my old store room so will be a search and rescue mission over the weekend..

its more a 'can it be done project' than anything else though the client did say that there was a few files that they would like to have back (How he remembers them is anyone's guess but sure i still have my first 500mb floating around somewhere ^_^ )

Thanks for teh tips guys - its noce to have a couple os possible options to try - much appreciated

[maximus]

It is always nice to have an old computer just in case. But my point is that this most likely does not need a computer that old to access it. I have an old 210MB Conner in my possession, and it is strictly CHS. I have a Gateway computer from the Vista age, and a cheap eMachine from the Windows 7 era. Surprisingly the BIOS on the eMachine correctly identifies the size, but the Gateway shows it as 0.0GB when it should show 0.2GB. I can access the drive from Linux on both computers (both computers have PATA connectors for the DVD drives that came with them). I can also access the drive using Hirens boot CD, so XP can access it. But if booted to Windows 7, no such luck. So all it takes is a computer with the PATA (IDE) connector and an OS that can deal with CHS. With that being said, it is always possible to have a computer with a BIOS that is wonky and may not be able to correctly communicate with an older drive.

[computek]

your correct on age of computer maximus - I currently have it hooked up as a slave on an old pentium 4 and can access it and all data on it...

however that said is the easy bit this must be a very old dos drive or have a dos based system on it as the file structure isn't the normal documents and settings like windows normally has - currently copying the data from the drive at a very painfully slow 150/200 bytes per second ...

we'll have a look at the structure then and see if maybe an emulator may help .. we'll see what we can get back anyway - I'm suspecting anything will be txt based or very early MSWORKS files - any files like that should open in an early copy of works say a windows 95/98 version

Will keep this updated for future reference as to solutions for folk

[fzabkar]

Please show us sector 0. That should tell us the location of the boot sector.

Then please show us the boot sector (sector 17?). That should tell us what we need to know about the file system.

[maximus]

however that said is the easy bit this must be a very old dos drive or have a dos based system on it as the file structure isn't the normal documents and settings like windows normally has - currently copying the data from the drive at a very painfully slow 150/200 bytes per second ...

Maybe you should try making an image with ddrescue, its not like 45MB would be a big image ( I am assuming that you are copying files now and not imaging?). If it is still slow to image then maybe there is some other issue, with either the drive or the communication between it and the computer. An image that size should be very easy to work with.

[fzabkar]

I currently have it hooked up as a slave on an old pentium 4 ...

Maybe it would be better to set it up as master on its own IDE port?

[maximus]

I currently have it hooked up as a slave on an old pentium 4 ...

Maybe it would be better to set it up as master on its own IDE port?

I completely missed that. I would assume that the master is a CD drive that is booted from. Having two drives of very different communication settings could possibly cause an issue. I do think it would be better as the master with no other drive on the port, that is how I tested. If the computer only has one IDE channel, then I would think it has SATA ports. Either put a SATA CD/DVD drive in it to boot from, or boot from USB (or SATA hard drive). If the computer has a second IDE channel, use it just for the old drive as the master.

[maximus]

Or you could just let it copy for 4 days