Access CHS drive on modern PC

[data-medics]

I've got an old Seagate ST9420AG 420Mb drive that came in for recovery. I'm guessing it's from some sort of antique machine. Does anyone know of a way to clone one of these other than to find an antique computer that still works? I know I don't have anything old enough to even attempt to read this as I'm pretty sure it's a CHS drive and not LBA.

Being able to connect to a Linux machine to use ddrescue would be ideal, as I'm assuming it's just bad sectors.

[jermy]

i just tried to access an old creature called maxtor 7245AT (246MB) on ASUS MB, actually i was surprised, it turns out the bios was able to recognize the HDD and work with it (CHS mode) of course linux too

[dick]

I can't really see where there is a problem. Just find an old pc/motherboard about 5 to 10 years old. If the drive doesn't auto detect by the motherboard bios then just punch in the parameters manually. Unless of course it is an old mfm type.

[jermy]

I can't really see where there is a problem.

i thought only PI or PII can recognise and work with those drives (CHS) as Spildit mentioned

Lacking HRT (or PC-3000 ISA as i think it will do C/H/S as well) i have an old PII 350 Mhz that can be set at BIOS to disable LBA and work in C/H/S mode.

as a matter of fact, there is logic behind it, and Spildit supposed to be right, that's why i was surprised

[guru]

ST9420AG is a lovely drive. It was originally designed by ex CDC guys, so it's not Conner based.

Pc3000 ISA may support it, but I can't remember for sure.

[guru]

Had a quick Google and found this

http://www.acedre.com/pc3000isasupport.pdf

[guru]

Shouldn't matter that the model number is not listed

[syntaxerror]

i just tried to access an old creature called maxtor 7245AT (246MB) on ASUS MB, actually i was surprised, it turns out the bios was able to recognize the HDD and work with it (CHS mode) of course linux too

Certainly. That would've been MY first approach as well. Simply turn off LBA in BIOS ( = avoid the Auto setting), thus forcing the BIOS to address the HDD in CHS mode.

[jermy]

Simply turn off LBA in BIOS ( = avoid the Auto setting)

Hamm, actually I did used auto setting.

[syntaxerror]

@jermy Well, then you were lucky. The BIOS, albeit old, was (surprisingly) "clever" enough to figure out that LBA addressing mode wouldn't make sense with that particular drive at all. Wish I had been that lucky once... Personally I've only ever come across BIOSes that were very buggy or almost broken. (syslinux knows tales to tell about that, not too rarely complaining "adequately" when it has to work around quirks again)

[data-medics]

Thanks guys, sorry I haven't been back following this thread. Been busy last couple days. While sending it out might be an option, I'm looking to have a more in-house solution for these old dinosaurs as they arise. If I have to invest in some old computer equipment I certainly can. Was just hoping not to have to go back to such an old computer to work from.

I think I do have some Asus motherboards here, so I'll have to try and see if any still support CHS. I'm betting they are too new, but maybe I can find one here.

Edit: I actually just remembered I have an old dinosaur first gen Xeon 24 bay storage server here which I sometimes use as a ddrescue machine. I bet it's old enough to recognize this drive.