[rescue] Anybody remember MFM? (Durango Poppy II problem)

[Dave McGuire]

On Tuesday, August 5, 2003, at 11:19 PM, Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
> Low level formatting is probably done through some utility, possibly
> booted off of a diagnostic disc, or since this is PC based, in a BIOS
> on the controller card.  This would be accessed via booting dos, going
> into debug, and executing g=dc00:5 or something like that (I think that
> address works for one of my ESDI cards... or was it c800:5 ??? been
> a long time).

   The debug command would be "g=c800:5".  My God why do I remember that.

>>>> The drive is connected to a board from 'Molecular Systems' which 
>>>> has 3
>>>> connectors: 2 for the MFM drive and a 50 pin connector. I am 
>>>> hesitant
>>>> to
>>>> try out if it's SCSI. Were combined MFM/SCSI cards normal in the old
>>>> days?
>>>
>>> Umm...not that I can recall but it _might_ be SCSI-1.  If it is 
>>> you'll
>>> probably not find a drive that will run on that connector.
>>
>> Why not? SCSI-2 drives should work on a SCSI-1 controller?
>
> If it is SCSI... it could be SASI.

   He said there's an ISA bus in there...SASI predates ISA by a good 
long time; I'd be pretty surprised if it were SASI.  Most (all?) SASI 
hard drives were 8".

         -Dave

--
Dave McGuire                 "You don't have Vaseline in Canada?"
St. Petersburg, FL                     -Bill Bradford