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IBM extended esdi controller questions

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pinkdonut666

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So i've been searching around on ebay looking for ways to waste money...

I ran across the IBM extended esdi controller card.

I believe it belongs to an IBM 6150 RT system, but is there any reason why it wouldn't work in an IBM AT 5170? The 5170 already has an aftermarket bios so drive type limitations are not an issue.

s62RPxAl.jpg


Would there be any reason why I couldn't get one of these controller cards and use an ESDI drive in the 5170? Like a Maxtor 300mb drive or something. I really just want an excuse to play with a full height 5.25" ESDI multi hundred megagbyte drive

(yes i know, and IDE-CF adapter is a cheaper more reliable option, I'm just playing with this hardware and having fun. I've never messed with ESDI so i thought it might be something different)
 
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Also I should add, with the Stock IBM 5170 Floppy / MFM card, can the Fixed disk part be disabled? or would i HAVE to use a different floppy controller?
 
there is no PC bios rom on this board
the eprom that is there is for the drive controller firmware

ESDI drives are a crap shoot at this point as far as them working, and you have to be very careful to get a controller
that can deal with the data rate coming off of the drives, which could be 10,15,20 or 25 mbits/sec

it also looks like the supply of controllers at least on eBay has dried up at any sort of reasonable price
 
Al Kossow said:
there is no PC bios rom on this board
the eprom that is there is for the drive controller firmware

ESDI drives are a crap shoot at this point as far as them working, and you have to be very careful to get a controller
that can deal with the data rate coming off of the drives, which could be 10,15,20 or 25 mbits/sec

it also looks like the supply of controllers at least on eBay has dried up at any sort of reasonable price
Click to expand...

This is what I was afraid of, and I did some more digging and from what I understand, some PC AT ISA cards will work in an IBM RT system, but RT cards will not work in a PC AT.

The PC for lack of a better way to say it, would have absolutely no idea what to do with it. It doesn't have a PC bios like you said. And that's honestly why I asked, I had no idea lol.

Yeah, ESDI controllers seem to be $$$ for some reason, seems odd. The drives seem to be plentiful, but like MFM drives it is a crap shoot. I have a few MFM drives and the 5.25" drives seem to have stiff the test of time but the 3.5" drives have not.

Meh. No real loss, I more or less wanted an excuse to pickup an old Maxtor ESDI full height drive like 300mb + just to hear the noises. They sound like the world is ending or a jet aircraft taking off.
 
Al Kossow said:
ESDI drives are a crap shoot at this point as far as them working, and you have to be very careful to get a controller
that can deal with the data rate coming off of the drives, which could be 10,15,20 or 25 mbits/sec
Click to expand...

I must have a dozen or so Q-Bus ESDI controllers (Dilog DQ686, Emulex QD21, Sigma RQD11, etc). I also had about the same number of working ESDI drives at some point. Unfortunately many of the drives appeared to have died on their own while not in use. I should give them all a try now and see if any of them still work or if they are all dead now.
 
Protip, that card wont work with any normal ESDI drive.
Miniscribe 9380E will work.
Modified Maxtor 310MB (can't remember the model) will work - has to be the version sold by IBM with the "H310" sticker.
Others may work but they must support the shorter timings (I forget the details).

I didn't get mine working in a normal PC, but it was so long ago now I don't know if I made some stupid mistake.
Worked fine in an RT, but only with those specific drive models (IBM RT FAQ online will tell you more about this).

It's an awesome card that allows three drives, however was sold with an IBM server where they really did not want you buying drives from other people at half the price. So I wouldn't personally choose it for a PC system.

Edit: from the RT FAQ:

The EESDI adapter and ported EESDI adapter
appears to have been made by IBM, they have IBM PROMs and PAL devices
on the boards.

The EESDI adapters are very SENSITIVE to timing problems with
*SOME* OEM drives.

* The IBM H310 drive was a relabeled MAXTOR XT-4380E drive.
I personally have had success only when a specific TLA number
controller board is installed on the drive, with what MAXTOR
calls 'a short index pulse'.

* Drives known to work with the EESDI controller have the following
ientification numbers:

MAXTOR XT-4380E Series: 2
TLA: 1094508-2 HDA: 1014294 PCBA: 1018528_A

MINISCRIBE: Model 9380E
9380EF
HDA: 01P4 PCBA: 04P1 BDMT: 05P1 Unique: 02P2
TDA: 3077A 3041A

PIRAM: Model # ID337-RT-H2
Barcode says: model #638 AWE 00015432
PCB: 201384 EC: 11665 CCL A
Click to expand...
 
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SpidersWeb said:
Protip, that card wont work with any normal ESDI drive.
Miniscribe 9380E will work.
Modified Maxtor 310MB (can't remember the model) will work - has to be the version sold by IBM with the "H310" sticker.
Others may work but they must support the shorter timings (I forget the details).

I didn't get mine working in a normal PC, but it was so long ago now I don't know if I made some stupid mistake.
Worked fine in an RT, but only with those specific drive models (IBM RT FAQ online will tell you more about this).

It's an awesome card that allows three drives, however was sold with an IBM server where they really did not want you buying drives from other people at half the price. So I wouldn't personally choose it for a PC system.
Click to expand...

This is why I asked, because I had no idea obviously :p I ended up reading the IBM RT faq there and what a fascinating system i knew less than nothing about :p

it is unfortunate that IBM was doing the proprietary shenanigans they loved so much with the hard drives you could use, but oh well.
 
pinkdonut666 said:
well I would like a maxtor XT-2190 for less than $400 lmao. but all the 100mb +mfm drives seem to be $$$$

if they were more like $60-$100 i would snap one up.
Click to expand...
I have a 2190 but it's not in working condition although it spins up. I have some others as well, some working and some not.
 
Many years ago I had an IBM ESDI 70MB drive that I installed in my 5170 PCAT.
I recall getting a specific controller that came from an RT PC. I think it was one
of the following :

WESTERN DIG WD1005-WAH REQ M/B BIOS SUPPORT E70 & E114 Only
WESTERN DIG WD1005-ARM REQ M/B BIOS SUPPORT E70 & E114 OnlY (RT ESDI)

The M/B BIOS had also been modified to support this drive type.

I recall this worked pretty well, kind of slow, and sounded like a 747 taking off when
powering on the 5170.
 
I found this statement below in a readme file about RT hard drives and controllers.
Apparently this only refers to the IBM E70 and E114 drives:

The Extended ESDI RT is not usuable for these drives in an AT machine.
(IBM extended ESDI is identified by the use of three 20 pin cable
connectors and the Adaptec chip set),

EDIT: Can you post better pictures of your controller card ?
 
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