Large geometry MFM drive testing

[Chuck Guzis]

On 30 Oct 2010 at 15:06, Steven Hirsch wrote:

> All,
> 
> I'm trying to evaluate a pile of large MFM hard drives for
> functionality. I'm attaching them to a WD-1006V-MM2 controller and
> running Sprinrite 4 under DOS 6.0 (using a 486 EISA motherboard).
> 
> This works fine for drives with < 1024 cylinders, but I cannot seem to
> remember (or figure out) how to surface-test drives with more
> cylinders (e.g. Priam V185 with 1166).

The convention when the cylinder field overflows 10 bits is to use 
the two high-order bits of the head field (that's why MFM, and for 
that matter, IDE drives max out at 64 heads when non-LBA geometry is 
used.).

--Chuck