Questions tagged [hard-disk]
For questions regarding hard disk drive usage. The hardware, connection, format and drivers.
60
questions
10
votes
2answers
397 views
How did 512 Bytes come to be the most common sector size?
It was long assumed by FS drivers that all diskette and harddisk units operate in blocks of size 512 Bytes. How did this happen to be the case, historically? Why not the "neater" 1 KiB, say?
2
votes
1answer
217 views
Bill-of-material cost of early hard drives
Based on this topic (and continuing this topic), my question once again surfaced:
And what was the layout of the prime cost of early 8 and 5.25 inch hard drives? From Seagate and competing ...
28
votes
17answers
6k views
How much did the first hard drives for PCs cost?
I would like to know how much early PC hard drives cost but have only been aable to find adjacent or unsourced data.
According to the Centre for Computing History:
The "IBM 5161 Expansion ...
4
votes
1answer
241 views
How did the DEC RP06 respond to unscheduled power off?
The DEC RP06 disk drive was a remarkable piece of hardware. It seems to have been the last generation of drives that used rigid magnetic disks in removable packs, before their replacement by '...
5
votes
1answer
198 views
How to identify the filesystem for an old SCSI drive?
Back in the day, SCSI was the way to go. I remember my high school having a single 5Mb Sider hdd connected to an Apple //e - which seemed awesome after endlessly swapping floppies. Not long after, I ...
2
votes
2answers
226 views
Modern HDD replacement for an old laptop
What is the modern solution I could use in Commodore C386SX-LT? It requires selection of disk type in bios, otherwise it won't work. Max setting allows up to 63MB, so would a 64MB CF with IDE adapter ...
3
votes
2answers
369 views
The “hidden” flag on partitions and Microsoft
On this website (and others, of course) you could be informed that there is a special partition flag (“hidden”) to avoid detection by Microsoft operating systems.
First: Is this a convention by/with ...
4
votes
2answers
190 views
Detecting the number of disk drives installed
When the BIOS gives control to the MBR (or the bootloader, for non-partitioned media), it passes the drive number from which the bootloader was loaded in the DL register. This number is most of the ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
Default (as opposed to physical) read/write heads - what are they?
The Seagate U Series hard disk Product manual states that the drive has 16 "Default read/write heads" while it has 4/3/2/1 "Physical read/write heads" (depending on actual model).
...
11
votes
2answers
620 views
Was there ever a Linux kernel driver for accessing disks via BIOS?
If there is some piece of PC compatible hardware where there are no (publicly) existing drivers for Linux, the only option is to access the disk with BIOS calls. I'm aware that this imposes ...
3
votes
1answer
216 views
Does anyone have information about the nj32disk.sys driver?
I'm currently trying to use the nj32disk.sys driver to use my USB stick as a virtual hard drive. The problem is that the driver acts like a floppy disk. My question is: Is there a documentation about ...
0
votes
2answers
223 views
CF partitions not showing up in Workbench
4GB Compact Flash
KS 3.1 40.68
WB3.1
Latest WinUAE
I just created a Compact Flash (compatible Transcend) partitions under Workbench on latest WinUAE using this guide. Despite following the steps my CF ...
11
votes
8answers
6k views
Why were optical drives not used as secondary storage instead of magnetic drives?
What prevented optical drives from being used as the dominant secondary storage like the magnetic disk drives, in PCs? Was it entirely technical limitation or other issues like late development and ...
5
votes
2answers
556 views
Is there any virtual hard disk driver over serial port?
NOTE: I'm not looking for a way to transfer files from Linux to DOS over Serial cable
Is there any MS-DOS driver to enable a new hard-disk drive (let's say D:), using a disk image on another computer ...
9
votes
1answer
373 views
How Amiga A590 autoboot ROM and bootable floppy disk works?
Commodore A590 was a peripheral hard drive and memory expansion unit for Amiga 500/500+ computers. It provides SCSI and XT-harddrive controller and 2MB Fast Ram. Here is the Big Book of Amiga Hardware ...
16
votes
2answers
2k views
How does Windows 9x determine which disk drivers correspond to which BIOS disks/DOS drive letters?
Windows 9x can employ two kinds of disk drivers: native protected-mode drivers and compatibility-mode DOS drivers, and the former are used in preference to the latter whenever possible. When Windows ...
8
votes
4answers
1k views
Imaging a HDD from DOS over Serial
I have recently fixed an old IBM Clone, which has an MFM hard drive. The PC booted up fine, but then I saw, that a few years back, I have deleted a few important files (probably by mistake). The ...
2
votes
0answers
1k views
How many Amiga 590 units were sold?
The A590 was an external hard disk for the Amiga 500, in 'sidecar' form factor, that could also hold an extra megabyte of RAM.
How many 590s were sold, throughout its life?
38
votes
5answers
9k views
Apocryphal (?) tale of hard drive platter propelled through a wall?
In the mid-1990s while a student at a US university during a computer science lecture, my professor (not a TA or grad student) told us a story of "witnessing" a large, then old-fashioned metal hard ...
12
votes
2answers
1k views
Hard coded hard drive BIOS geometries
Most old BIOSes on PCs and compatibles provided means to enter hard drive geometries (cylinder/head/sector as well as more esoteric things like write precomp) when configuring the machine.
Some (AMI ...
3
votes
1answer
518 views
How I can install Windows 98SE in Hyper-V, but can't run it after
Create the Gen 1 machine with less than 512MiB Ram (above requires you to put MaxFileCache=524288 and MaxPhysPage=40000 in the system.ini later).
Add either a virtual or physical IDE drive (physical ...
4
votes
3answers
494 views
Bad floppy drive in T1910CS 486 laptop
I've recently picked up a Toshiba T1910CS 486 laptop. It's in OK shape, with a 500MB hard drive and DOS installed. I also ordered a USB floppy disk drive and some floppy disks so that I could install ...
12
votes
3answers
2k views
Getting data from Seagate ST-238R drive
Hello: I have an old Seagate ST-238R drive. I'm the original owner and it stopped working in the early-90s when I foolishly deleted system files to make room for a football game. (I was 12 at the time)...
4
votes
2answers
305 views
Can a bootable Win9x HDD be made interchangeable between PCs?
Normally, Windows 9x must be installed on each PC individually so that it can be loaded/configured with the appropriate set of drivers. I'm wondering if there is any way to make a boot HDD that can be ...
5
votes
3answers
323 views
Steps to recover data from Conner CP341
Trying to recover data from Conner CP341 HDD i took from an old Compaq Portable III.
The data is important enough to go through the effort of recovering it, and i would like to do this myself (rather ...
13
votes
1answer
904 views
Old Conner IDE hard drives that are mistakenly detected as being 2TB, how do I connect to and image them?
I have connected two old Conner Peripheral IDE HDDs to a modern computer using Deltaco USB to SATA/IDE adaptors.
The drives in question are:
Conner CP30121 (120 MB)
Conner CFA2161A (210 MB)
Both ...
53
votes
3answers
10k views
On DOS computers, what would the PARK command do?
In 1994 or so, we had an old computer at my primary school. I remember finding out that it had a park command. From reading its documentation, it said that this command should be executed prior to ...
4
votes
1answer
192 views
pfs3 error when copying files
Config: WinUAE 4.2.1, CPU 68020, 24bit, FPU 68882, 8MB FastRam Z2, A1200, CF 4GB Transcend, BetterWB 43, Dopus 4,
When I try to copy folders from PC to CF Partition (2.4GB, pfs3) it goes alright, ...
8
votes
1answer
374 views
How do I connect an IDE hard drive to an Amiga 4000 tower?
I would like to know how to connect a hard drive to the Amiga 4000 tower. I have an IDE cable from the top right m/b to the IDE CD-drive. I also have what looks like a SCSI cable from the CPU board.
...
8
votes
2answers
621 views
Create an Amiga hard disk image
I'm looking for Linux dd command equivalent for Amiga to make image of hard disk. TSGUI not work if disk have broken RDB. Do you know program which can make hard disk image on Amiga?
3
votes
2answers
2k views
Can DOS 6.22 recognize more than 504MB when the BIOS only supports CHS?
My CMOS setup correctly recognizes the geometry of the drive, (but does not support LBA). And FDISK in DOS 6.22 only recognizes 504MB. FDISK even shows the size of the primary partition as roughly ...
7
votes
4answers
495 views
What's the pitfalls when trying to connect a new SCSI hard drive to an old SCSI bus?
Problem
I have a couple of old computers. Some of them have a SCSI-1 or SCSI-2 interface over an internal 50 pin IDC connector or an external DB25. Now I want to connect something to them, in ...
9
votes
1answer
905 views
How can I edit CMOS hard drive geometry settings on a 1991 PC?
First, I am NOT asking how to use the BIOS Setup utility. I'm asking how to OVERRIDE the built-in settings my BIOS Setup supports for the HD geometry.
I have a 1991 NCR PC with a 386SX, on-board IDE, ...
4
votes
1answer
842 views
Accessing Old Seagate HDD Model ST4350N
I have an Old HDD Seagate Model ST4350N. I want to access the data on the Hard disk.
The Hard disk have 50 pin connector
I am hoping for guidance on how to even begin the process. What kind of ...
35
votes
8answers
9k views
Why were floppy disks invented after hard disks?
For those of us who grew up with personal computers in the 1970's or 1980's, the experience was a very gradual migration from floppy disks to hard disks as the primary persistent storage. So, based on ...
2
votes
4answers
628 views
Hard disks in 1977
Suppose you wanted to take one of the 1977 trinity (Apple II, Commodore PET, TRS-80) and attach it to a hard disk at that time - in 1977.
Of course this wouldn't be easy. Not only was there no ...
23
votes
8answers
4k views
What were the early PC applications requiring a hard disk?
I had to wait about 5 years before hard drives (HDs) became affordable enough to begin moving off of floppies. During this time, I remember my desire for an HD being based on convenience. All the ...
4
votes
0answers
260 views
How to use IIgs enhanced graphics modes in AppleSoft BASIC with System 6?
There are many packages that let you use the enhanced graphics modes of the IIgs in AppleSoft BASIC. However most packages like Iconix do not like System 6 so they have to run off disks and not the ...
1
vote
2answers
261 views
Conventional Hard Drive life-span [closed]
I have a bunch of hard drives. From 500 megabytes to a few gigabytes from years around 2000-2006. I was wondering if those are still readable or are dead. Should I hurry up finding an adapter and try ...
33
votes
6answers
6k views
Why do hard drives not use larger platter sizes anymore?
In reading a related question about floppy drive capacity, I thought to ask a question I've had for a long time. When I started programming, all PC hard drives used the 5¼" platter size. There were ...
9
votes
6answers
6k views
Cannot boot from a Compact Flash card
I am trying to fix up an old work computer I have from the early to mid 90's.
Everything works fine, but the hard drive makes a horrible clicking noise when it loads anything, so I decided to ...
3
votes
3answers
339 views
How do I Secure Erase a PATA hard drive without a compatible desktop motherboard? [closed]
I have a few hard drives, laptop and desktop IDE, which I would like to Secure Erase. I'm aware that other methods exist for removing the data, but this is the safest and most efficient, and it's the ...
8
votes
3answers
2k views
How do you find information about your hard drive in MS-DOS?
Context: I'm running an original MS-DOS. I suspect the hard disk is failing, but don't want to shut it off for fear of not being able to get it started again if I can't swap the hard drive into ...
3
votes
1answer
178 views
ST-506 price: wholesale or retail?
The ST-506 was an early personal computer hard disk, introduced in 1980 with a capacity of 5 megabytes and a price of $1500.
While several sources confirm the price, I haven't been able to find ...
7
votes
2answers
332 views
What was the block spacing in early hard disks?
Early floppy disks had significant spacing between blocks, e.g. a PC 5.25" disk had a theoretical capacity of about 500K but was formatted as 360K, nine blocks per track, with a substantial fraction ...
4
votes
3answers
757 views
What to do about “Invalid media type”
I have an old PC with a HDD that was using Double Space. Since I do not need the extra space, and want to minimise the system use of RAM, I attempted to re-format the drive normally.
After typing ...
6
votes
2answers
194 views
Recover files from Dell PP04L Hard Drive
I have my mom's old Dell Inspiron 2650 model PP04L. She is passed away now but I'd like to salvage some of the old pictures and things she had on there. Is there a way to buy an enclosure and mount ...
10
votes
1answer
233 views
Apple II: What type of partition tables were used?
What type of partition table was used with ProDOS?
ProDOS (8-bit) version 1.2 was available in January 1983, one year before the Macintosh was released, so it is unclear to me if ProDOS 1.2 used the "...
10
votes
2answers
373 views
Order of powering down Atari ST and hard drive?
I am wondering if the order is important, which do I turn off first? The Atari ST computer or the external hard drive attached to it? It is on an SCSI adapter.
9
votes
2answers
490 views
What operating systems allowed arbitrarily-sized disk blocks?
According to my limited experience with IBM clone mainframes, and as far as I can remember, at least in one OS the permanent storage disk space was allocated to users (and the scratch space — to ...
