Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!steinmetz!davidsen From: davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: FORMATTING a AT RLL drive Keywords: RLL format Message-ID: <12695@steinmetz.ge.com> Date: 29 Nov 88 18:50:44 GMT References: <10649@ihlpa.ATT.COM> Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY Lines: 40 In article <10649@ihlpa.ATT.COM> wolfordj@ihlpa.ATT.COM (452is-Wolford) writes: | I have a "AT" class WD Floppy / hard disk controler that uses | RLL format for the hard disk. (I think WD-1003-RA). | | What programs are available to format these drives ? | | I know of a program from Storage Dimensions for ~$100, but that | is a little steap for my blood and since it is just a one | time use. Would like a program for <= $25. | | My bios does NOT support any 26 SEC/track drives (ie RLL type). So what | is involved in getting around this if any thing. I have posted a program to binaries.ibm.pc which will allow you to use a non-standard hard disk. If you have an old DOS you will be able to have one partition, 3.3 or later support up to 4. Partitions may be up to 32MB. | Before I get any flames, YES I am using this in a "AT" clone | as my FD/HD controller. | | I am speaking of the low level format (i.e. these drives are NOT | preformatted) and I know how to use DOS format. | | This is on a AT machine therefor lowlevel format is NOT in the disk | controller. I won't disagree with you, but I have used Adaptek, Perstor, and other WD controllers, and all had format in the ROM. I have never seen a controller which didn't have it either in ROM or on the disk which comes with the controller. Did you buy this used or something? I assume that you used DEBUG to look at the controller ROM, either C800:5 or other locations at the beginning of ROM which might have the location. I beleive that the BIOS call to format the hard disk calls the controller. Did you try using that? -- bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa) {uunet | philabs}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me