Anyone who knows rare add-ons for #vintagecomputers, can you point me to the manual for this? It's a Mountain Computer part number 05-04031-02 that came in a HDD-less IBM 5160 (PC-XT) I rescued. I can't tell if it's an MFM, RLL, or ESDI controller or what the jumpers do.
It's similar to to this tape controller sandwich:
- https://www.ebay.com/itm/133011110665
- https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Mountain-tape-drive-interface-8-bit-isa-05-04031-01-rev-C/521212501
but not.
And I know it's a hard drive controller of some sort, because Mountain Computer sold it for the PC & XT (5150 & 5160) at the same time they sold hard drive kits for Apple IIs.
Omni Complete Catalog of Computer Hardware and Accessories 1984, pp. 242-243: https://archive.org/details/Omni_Complete_Catalog_of_Computer_Hardware_and_Accessories_1984_Omni_Publications/page/n249/mode/2up
But the only Mountain Computer manuals I can find are for their Apple II products. None for their IBM PC controller cards.
The Diagnostics disk from the XT's Guide to Operations recognizes that a controller is present & jumpered for a single HDD, but it doesn't say what the controller is or what kind it is.
I have IBM DOS 2.1 for the PC-XT & IBM DOS 3.3 on disks the XT likes, but they don't have a setup program. The disks were installed before being shrink-wrapped.
The only other utilities I have are DEBUG & FDISK. None of the Debug commands worked, & FDisk simply says no HDD.
SpeedStor detected the controller but told me absolutely nothing about it. The other debug commands didn't work. But this one did:
A>debug
-g=c800:6
1701-B
"G=C800:6" printed the POST error code. Matches Scientific Micro Systems, OMTI, & Adaptec?
I still don't have any idea what basic kind of HDD to pair this mystery controller up with. #vintagecomputers & #vintagecomputing folks, any help is appreciated.
@arielmt Are you open to my own experiences doing something similar so you can maybe apply it to your situation :P?
@cr1901 suggest away!
@arielmt IBM DOS 2.1 and 3.3 don't have a setup program. You're expected to
"SYS C:" and copy the files.
But if FDISK can't see the hard drive, you need to low-level format a hard disk attached to it.
To low-level format, try one of these:
* Run SPEEDSTOR.
* Use an IBM PC Advanced Diagnostics diskette.
* Running DEBUG.COM then typing "g =c800:5" and a newline can _sometimes_ work. I wouldn't try it for this controller.
@cr1901 I already did try the Debug command, and it hung identically to commands for other controllers.
My problem is that I have to identify the controller type and jumper settings positively before I can source a hard drive to pair it with.
@arielmt SPEEDSTOR can be found here:
http://minuszerodegrees.net/software/speedstor.htm
SPEEDSTOR might be able to tell you the drive geometry that the controller expects even WITHOUT a drive attached.
I've never tried SPEEDSTOR without a drive attached though, I just know that the hard drive controller has to "know" what geometry it supports without the hard disk attached (somewhere in the EPROMs).
@arielmt If the controller says it supports 17 sectors per track, it's MFM. 26 is RLL. Idk what ESDI does tho- same connector, different signals :(?
What I tried so far:
> debug
-> G=C800:5
-> G=C800:800
-> G=C800:CCC
-> G=C800:5
-> G=C800:6
What I haven't tried yet:
> SpeedStor http://minuszerodegrees.net/software/speedstor.htm
> Other debug commands https://jeffpar.github.io/kbarchive/kb/060/Q60089/
There's no HDD attached. I have to figure out what the controller is & supports before sourcing a disk.