Northstar HD-5 Hard Disk Controller?
Howard M. Harte
I recently acquired a Northstar HD-5 hard disk controller, and it looks
like it uses a standard MFM hard drive. I am looking for any information or
software related to this controller.
Thanks,
Howard
Howard M. Harte
I plugged in an old (but probably too new for the N*) MFM drive to the
controller. It is an old Toshiba full-height drive, somewhere around 80MB.
I ran CPMGEN to generate a new version of the BIOS, and chose the "HD-5"
hard disk. When I boot the machine, it loads HD05BOOT.COM from drive A and
runs it. Here's the output that I get:
64K CP/M vers 2.2 Horizon rev 1.1.0 HQ
Product of North Star Computers,Inc.
Hard Disk Boot In-Process
To review connections, enter Semicolon (;) within a second or two
CONNECTION TO HARD DISK FAILED BECAUSE:
CP/M WORK FILE OPEN OR CREATE FAILED
HDOS ERROR: 116 -SEE APPENDIX B OF HARD-DISK MANUAL
A>
The "HDOS ERROR: 116" is displayed when I have the drive select correct
on the drive. If I set the drive select incorrectly, I get "HDOS ERROR:
125" (Which I'm assuming is something like "drive not ready."
The interesting thing is that I do hear the drive seeking when I boot up
with the drive select set properly.
Any information or details on the error code would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks,
Howard
"Howard M. Harte" <hha...@cisco.com> wrote in message
news:965694851.233129@sj-nntpcache-3...
r.s...@snet.net
<hha...@cisco.com> wrote:
> I recently acquired a Northstar HD-5 hard disk controller, and it looks
>like it uses a standard MFM hard drive. I am looking for any information or
>software related to this controller.
>
Some guys have all the luck.... I've been looking for one for the
past year! I believe that I MAY have N* HDOS around here somewhere.
I will look and let you know. I don't think I have any docs.
Bob Stek
Saver of Lost Sols (and N* too)
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Howard M. Harte
Thanks! I am working on getting an IDE drive working in my Horizon. I
picked up another Horizon so that I can modify it (cosmetically) to put 3.5"
drives in it. I didn't want to screw up the original one that I have. The
one that I picked up happened to have one of these cards in it, with no
drives at all. One thing that I don't know if you are aware of is that
there is a separate "power supply" board that provides 12 and 5 volts for
the drive. It is mounted to the rear of the chassis, to one of the DB-25
openings. I tried using the "Floppy" power cables first, and it didn't have
enough power to spin up the drive. The separate regulator board solves the
problem.
The HD-5 controller is very simple. There are no LSI parts on it at
all. I didn't look very carefully, but so far what I see is a single 7805
regulator, and a bunch of TTL parts. That's it. Also, it looks like it
can only support one drive. There isn't a connector for the second drive
(as you see on all the old PC MFM controllers.) The machine also came with
an HRAM board and a MDS-AD floppy controller. I checked both of those out
and they seem fine. There was a strange mod on the floppy controller that
consisted of a "blue wire" running from a pin on one of the ICs to a "pin"
(or contact) on the S-100 connector that seems to have been glued on. It
looked like they glued a piece of copper to the edge of the card to make
another contact. Anyway, the controller was acting funny with the mod. I
removed it, and it works fine. I haven't looked at the MDS schematics and
S-100 pinout to try and figure out what the mod was supposed to do yet, but
I will.
Thanks again,
Howard
<r.s...@snet.net> wrote in message
news:js61ps0vfmb03olg5...@4ax.com...
Don Maslin
: I plugged in an old (but probably too new for the N*) MFM drive to the
: controller. It is an old Toshiba full-height drive, somewhere around 80MB.
: I ran CPMGEN to generate a new version of the BIOS, and chose the "HD-5"
: hard disk. When I boot the machine, it loads HD05BOOT.COM from drive A and
: runs it. Here's the output that I get:
: 64K CP/M vers 2.2 Horizon rev 1.1.0 HQ
: Product of North Star Computers,Inc.
: Hard Disk Boot In-Process
: To review connections, enter Semicolon (;) within a second or two
: CONNECTION TO HARD DISK FAILED BECAUSE:
: CP/M WORK FILE OPEN OR CREATE FAILED
: HDOS ERROR: 116 -SEE APPENDIX B OF HARD-DISK MANUAL
: A>
May we assume that you found a means to format the hard disk into
logical 8mb (or smaller) drives? I would not be inclined to think
that a program with the name HD05BOOT would do it. Also, it would
seem likely to be looking for a 5mb logical drive.
- don
: The "HDOS ERROR: 116" is displayed when I have the drive select correct
: on the drive. If I set the drive select incorrectly, I get "HDOS ERROR:
: 125" (Which I'm assuming is something like "drive not ready."
: The interesting thing is that I do hear the drive seeking when I boot up
: with the drive select set properly.
: Any information or details on the error code would be greatly
: appreciated.
: Thanks,
: Howard
: "Howard M. Harte" <hha...@cisco.com> wrote in message
: news:965694851.233129@sj-nntpcache-3...
:> Hi,
:>
:> I recently acquired a Northstar HD-5 hard disk controller, and it
: looks
:> like it uses a standard MFM hard drive. I am looking for any information
: or
:> software related to this controller.
:>
:> Thanks,
:> Howard
:>
:>
:>
:>
:>
Howard M. Harte
See comments inline below...
"Don Maslin" <do...@crash.cts.com> wrote in message
news:8mqmc0$10p8$1...@thoth.cts.com...
<snip>
> Howard M. Harte <hha...@cisco.com> wrote:
>
> : Hard Disk Boot In-Process
> : To review connections, enter Semicolon (;) within a second or two
>
> : CONNECTION TO HARD DISK FAILED BECAUSE:
> : CP/M WORK FILE OPEN OR CREATE FAILED
> : HDOS ERROR: 116 -SEE APPENDIX B OF HARD-DISK MANUAL
>
> : A>
>
> May we assume that you found a means to format the hard disk into
> logical 8mb (or smaller) drives? I would not be inclined to think
> that a program with the name HD05BOOT would do it. Also, it would
> seem likely to be looking for a 5mb logical drive.
>
> - don
I believe that HD-5 refers to a 5.25" hard drive, rather than 5MB. There is
also an HD-18 for the N* but I have no idea what this is. But you are
correct that I probably need to low-level format the drive, and then
partition it. N* must have written software to do that. The only question
is where can I find it?
-Howard