[SOLVED] Is it possible to fix a very old HDD by swapping platters (I don't care about data)?

[Andrew_IF]

I know a lot of people already asked about swapping HDD platters to save their data, but I have quite the opposite story.

I have a very old HDD (21 Mb, Conner CP-2024 if that is important). I got it with an old computer which I'm trying to restore out of pure curiosity. Due to its age (around 30 years) rubber gasket has completely disintegrated and it was full of dust on the inside. And when I say "full of dust" I literally mean it. The head was leaving traces on the dust. Sometimes the system can see the disk but sometimes it can't. My assumption is that the platter could have been damaged by all this dust.

The problem with this computer is that it seems to be able to work only with this particular disk. Its bios has only two settings "No disk"/"This exact disk".

So my question is if it's possible to swap a platter from a less old HDD of a different capacity and somehow initialise it, or is it something that only a factory can do? I don't care about the files on this disk at all, but I need the disk itself to be functional. Am I asking for impossible?

New (as in "not the one I have") CP-2024 seem to be very rare, I think I saw one on ebay for a few hundred US dollars a while ago. So I don't have the option "simply buy a new one" or "find the one having exactly the same model and firmware version" my only option is frankensteining it using something more modern. But any ideas are appreciated.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

No, you cannot simply swap platters in that fashion. This is especially true of trying to use a platter from a newer generation drive. In addition, running the drive with that much dust/dirt in it has most definitely damaged/destroyed the heads. It's a lost cause.

 

[Andrew_IF]

I sort of expected this answer .

Can you think about any other options by any chance? The computer I'm fixing seems to be expecting a disk with Cylinders:Heads:Sectors=612:4:17. Is there any way to emulate this? Any sort of a programmable CF card to IDE emulator maybe? I do not afraid of a bit of soldering and/or coding.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Your only real solution is to locate either an exact match drive, or, another drive with similar specs from the same era. Modern drives won't work in a system that old.

 

[BFG-9000]

It's not unusual for computers of that vintage to list "this exact disk" for any IDE disk that happens to be plugged in at the time. That doesn't mean it's the only model disk that will work.

Unlike predecessors MFM, ST506 and even ESDI, all drive-specific electronics required to operate an IDE disk (and the list of bad sectors) are on the disk, not the controller. It happens that CompactFlash is also IDE so should be backwards compatible with controllers that do not understand later features such as DMA. Give it a try with any CF card under 504MB and you may be pleasantly surprised.

If needed, drive overlay software can be used to override C/H/S values as well, but that makes the disk unreadable in other systems. Note that particular drive actually has a native geometry of Cylinders:Heads:Sectors=653:2:32 but the disk translates that to 615:4:17

 

[TerryLaze]

You can also go for a SD to ide controller,it's completely transparent to the target system,I just got one for my amiga.
SD cards are much easier to find.

Also no matter if CF or SD if you can only find larger drives try to create a single small partition on them, windows format has support for the /T and /N switches so you can prepare the drive with the correct number of tracks and sectors.

Computers that old are made to run from floppies anyway,you can get yourself a gotek drive and have fun with it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-1-44MB-MFM-Floppy-Drive-to-USB-Emulator-Simulation-For-YAMAHA-GOTEK-Organ/283251775386?

 

[popatim]

Back in the day when you upgraded your HDD you set the C/H/S in the bios to match the HDD you are installing.
Then you low level format and the partition and format again.
Are you saying that yours are not changeable?

I actually have an old connor drive laying around. I'll check to see what size it is later in the week.