Date   : Tue, 12 May 2009 11:36:19 +0100
From   : zeem.uk@... (Alex Taylor)
Subject: My Rodime Wont Spin

2009/5/12 Julian Stenning <julian_stenning@...>:
>
> Lastly, I do have an old Western Digital MFM 30Mb 'FileCard' drive (rescued
> from an old Amstrad PC1640) that spins up when connected to the Acorn
> winchester PSU and adaptec board, but Superform wont complete a format. The
> drive parameters on the unit read 'H4, Wpc 783, Cyl 782, LZ 783, Spt 26'.
> Can I use this? I seem to think I have in the past, but that may be a false
> memory.

Those parameters sound right, but the drive may be dead. I've got two
30MB WD FileCards with XT-IDE drives on them, dating from 1989 and
1991. One of them now seems to be working fine, but the other is full
of bad sectors including some on track 0 which makes it totally
unusable. It's possible that a similar drive with an ST-506 interface
drive to go the same way.

Another thing of note is that the two drives I have here have 3 heads,
not 4. Although yours is a different drive, the capacities and other
parameters are the same, so it would seem odd for yours to have 4
heads unless it's actually a 40MB drive.

-- 
Alex Taylor