Uncreative Labs

Joined: 28 Feb 2006 Posts: 127 Location: LI, NY

Any ideas on what to try to bring back a failed MFM original Seagate (It's been a while since I've opened it up. I think it's probably ST-225, it's a 20MB Seagate) hdd?

The drive spins up but fails during boot. (Last I remember. Will have to drag it out again and verify though)

It would be nice to get my old data off of the drive as it has some of my old files on it that can't be replaced.

I remember these drives didn't park during shutdown so the read head could get "stuck" (correct me if I'm wrong). Should I open it open and verify that the head moves freely?

If all is lost, any recommendations on an 8-bit compact flash HDD replacement (if they exist).

Thanks!

Joined: 03 Dec 2005 Posts: 41 Location: Netherlands

Look for XT-IDE

Joined: 28 Feb 2006 Posts: 127 Location: LI, NY

Finally got around to dragging out the XTs from storage. Looks like my Seagate full height drive is lost to the sands of time. The drives that are in my two XTs are both Miniscribe drives (one newer than the other).

I was able to get them to fully spin back up and boot! The encoder that moves the head is accessible from the side of the case and (even though it's labeled "do not spin") if you spin it slowly, back and forth, it looks like it unstuck the head. Also the platters are able to be spun from outside as well so I gave them a little spin as well.

To keep them from re-sticking, I heard of this stuff called Tri-flow Superior Lubricant that's like a teflon based liquid lubricant you put a few drops on the encoder bearing. I went through with this and so far, haven't had any issues with the drives not spinning up.

One drive appears to be working perfectly again. The other drive was working okay but started getting weird (would spin up but then stopped booting into DOS) before the power supply decided it didn't want to work anymore. (No power when the switch is flipped.) That second drive that stopped booting had the nice volume name of "SH*TDISK" so I'm guessing it was giving me a headache 17 years ago when I first put it in that computer...

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

going back many yerd,
i observed a tech at pc warehouse replacing one chip on the pcb on a st-225. that was the weak lnk
it is a 14 or 6 pin chiplocated near the rear edge og the pc board.
it gas the middle 2 or 3 pins on each side as one wide o]pin.
i do not know the part number.

aecond
many st-213 h d have a pc board wit tiny letters " st-225" on the circuit board.
this board can be used to replace a failed pcb on a st-225.

two of us were working at company that was using st-213 10 meg and st-225 20meg hard drives.

since we had nothing tolose we tried this and it worked.

the st-213 then went ino the scre=a pile.
nobody guesses we had pulled off a trick

just be sure that the supposedly good board board on the st-213 has those tiny letters near the big center hols

wdegroot wdegrot@ptd.net.

last comment.
the specified 3:1 interleave ratio is an error. early spinrite or perhaps another util caslled spintest? tests the drive to determine the best abd fastest interleave.
i think --memory fades--- is 5-1 or 6-1

never use thi ibm zebec controller it is a real dog. use a wd 002 or 001(older)
card.. some older xt class controllers have fixed parameters.
the newer chips--- both kinds wrk fine.

Joined: 28 Feb 2006 Posts: 127 Location: LI, NY

I wanted to add to my previous post that I ended up having to replace a resistor on the main board of the hard drive due to it "popping" after using the drive for some time.

After replacing the resistor and with the added lubricant, I haven't had an issue with the drive since (and I've used it quite a bit).

I also ended up getting and assembling a Glitchworks XT-IDE ISA card kit so my XT also has a 256MB Compact flash drive as it's main hard drive with the original MFM as a secondary.

Glitchworks website: https://www.glitchwrks.com/xt-ide
Link to VCFED Thread about the resistor on the HDD: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?72253-Help-Identifying-Resistor-on-Miniscribe-20mb-MFM-drive