today's successful data recovery project is this ST-506 hard drive from a North…

Tube🌞 Time@mastodon.social · 2026-05-27 10:15

Posted in 懷舊技術、產品

today's successful data recovery project is this ST-506 hard drive from a North Star CPM computer.

View original 0 Likes 0 Boosts

Comments (6)

Tube🌞 Time@mastodon.social · 2026-05-27 10:16

in the bad block table, it only has the marking "NONE". is this a good omen? is it still true?

warning stickers and bad block table sticker on top of the hard drive.

Tube🌞 Time@mastodon.social · 2026-05-27 10:18

i tried to power it up and heard a sizzling sound. this tantalum capacitor shorted out and then took out the series inductor leading to it. i had to replace both of them.

two axial components slightly larger than a 1/2 watt resistor. one is a bullet shaped black tantalum capacitor with a huge crack. the other is a resistor-style inductor marked with brown, black black (10uH). it has a crack exuding some sort of toxic goo

Tube🌞 Time@mastodon.social · 2026-05-27 10:19

oh yeah, and the spindle wouldn't turn because the brake solenoid was seized shut. i forgot they had these things, lol.

slightly rusty motor rotor with a ground strap leading to the center. above it is a solenoid with some sort of tiny retractable brake pad.

Tube🌞 Time@mastodon.social · 2026-05-27 10:21

oh wow, the Gesswein MFM emulator found the drive and was able to read it without any errors!

Tube🌞 Time@mastodon.social · 2026-05-27 10:23

ahh, the good old days when you had to tell your operating system how fast it could move the hard drive heads.

AUTO COPYRIGHT (C) 1979, DIGITAL RESEARCH
Q3A. Enter Stepping Speed for Drive 1 (F=Fast, N=Normal)? $
Q4A. Is this a North Star HARD DISK System (Y or N)? $
Q4B. Give the PATHNAME of the Hard Disk Work File OR
Simply type RETURN for "CPMWORK"? $
Q5. Do you want Read-After-Write Check (Y or N)? $
Q6. Enter baud rate of serial printer (9600 to 300)
(for parallel printer, enter RETURN)? $

Tube🌞 Time@mastodon.social · 2026-05-27 10:25

looks like it contains CP/M 2.2 for North Star computers (North Star Advantage, perhaps)