Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!killer!ames!ncar!husc6!psuvax1!psuhcx!wcf
From: wcf@psuhcx.psu.edu (Bill Fenner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Hard drive / controller problems
Message-ID: <222@psuhcx.psu.edu>
Date: 11 Jul 88 17:24:09 GMT
Sender: wcf@psuhcx.psu.edu
Reply-To: wcf@psuhcx.psu.edu (Bill Fenner)
Organization: Penn State University Engineering Computer Lab
Lines: 56

All right, y'all, I've got a problem for someone who's smarter than I to
solve.

I have, at this moment, an IBM full-ht. 10 meg drive and controller in my
cheap snap-together clone. :-)  The controller has no identifying marks
other than IBM and a serial number.  It has no jumpers that are accesible
(it has spots for jumpers but there are no pins, just holes in the board
filled with solder.  I didn't feel like trying any of them.)  The drive
says Model No: WD12 on it, so I get the feeling that it's a Western Digital
drive with IBM's name on it, so that may be the case with the controller,
although the controller doesn't seem to have a controller in rom at any
of the usual addresses.  Of course, no, I don't have any documentation
with it.

Now the problem.  I just bought a second drive, an ST212.  It works fine
as drive C, it formats correctly and everything, boots up faster and quieter
than the IBM drive, etc.  But, the 2 drives will NOT work together.  I
have tried so many things... 

C and D indicate middle and end of the (twisted) 34-pin cable, c and d
indicate the c and d 20 pin drive connectors. DSx indicates that drive select
x is active on whatever drive, and (T) indicates the terminating resistor.

IBM   Cc  DS1
ST212 Dd  DS1 (T)

With this combination, both hard drives are accessed right after it tries
for the floppy.  (both at once.) and it says "Boot disk failure.  Press any
key to retry."

IBM   Cc DS1
ST212 Dd DS2 (T)
Like this, before (yes, before) it goes to the floppy, it lights the HD light
for about a minute on the ST212, then goes and boots fine but ignores drive D.

IBM  Dd DS1 (T)
same as above, except there's no drive C for it to access so it just hangs.

If you switch the IBM and the ST212 around, it does no good.

oh, one other thing

IBM Cd DS1 (T) works fine.
so I tried
IBM   Cd DS1
ST212 Dc DS1
and this does the same as the last 2.

I am starting to think that it's my controller.  I haven't managed to find
someone who is wwilling to lend me their controller yet, so I can't test this
assumption, but everyone I ask tells me that it should work. 

It's not the 34 pin cable, I've tried 2 different ones and they did the same
thing.

Please respond via E-mail, I'll summarize if anything interesting comes along.