Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ttidcb.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!philabs!ttidca!ttidcb!caprio From: caprio@ttidcb.UUCP (Don Caprio) Newsgroups: net.micro.pc Subject: $99.00 hard disk follow up - results Message-ID: <392@ttidcb.UUCP> Date: Thu, 27-Jun-85 13:56:28 EDT Article-I.D.: ttidcb.392 Posted: Thu Jun 27 13:56:28 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 30-Jun-85 02:45:49 EDT Organization: TTI, Santa Monica, CA. Lines: 59 In a recent article I posted to the net I was seeking help on bringing up my Shugart SA604 6.7 meg hard disk on the IBM PC. I did not get much help although there was alot of interest in the $99.00 dollar drive. I have brought the drive on line and everything is working just fine. I've tested the drive running PC DOS versions 2.0, 2.1 and 3.0 and did not encounter any problems with any of the O/S's. My main concern was getting software to format the drive. This was easly solved when I found out that the ADAPTEC hard disk controller card contains a generic format utility in the BIOS. The format utility run using DEBUG and starting executoion at a specified location in the BIOS PROM. The Format utility prompts the user for several of the hard disk parameters i.e. interleave, drive id, step pulse rate, landing zone, ECC correction, write pre-comp, reduce write current cylinder, head count and the cylinder count. The following script was used with the ADAPTEC controller to format the Shugart SA604 hard disk: A>DEBUG -g=C800:CCC *** ADAPTEC ACB2000 Format Program *** *** enter interleave (1:9) = 2 *** enter drive id (0/1) = 0 *** should we use default parameters (Y/N) n *** reply to the following questions in hex only *** step pulse rate (0-7) = 3*** landing zone = B6 *** ECC correction span = 8 *** Write pre-comp cylinder = *** reduce write current cylinder = *** head count = 4 *** cylinder count = A0 *** sending mode select - 15 *** *** sending write buffer - 0F *** *** format in progress... 04 *** Press control-break to quit -q A>FDISK ... A>FORMAT C:/S/V Overall the installation and formatting process were very easy. Everthing went smooth. Anyone wanting to upgrade to a hasd disk and cant afford the price of the 10 meg this is a great alternitive for only $300.00 bucks. I bought my ADAPTEC controller from PC Limited out of Texas. The controller arrived in less than a week, no tax and the shipping was free. The controller was $195.00 (including the cables) best price around. Their customer service is good and they are willing to help with any problems. I picked up the Shugart SA604 from California Digital for $99.00. California Digital PC's Limited 17700 Figueroa Street 7801 N. Lamar #E-200 Carson, Calif. 90248 Austin, Texas 78752 (800) 421-5041 order line (800) IBM-5150 order line (213) 217-0500 Technical (512) 452-0323 Technical