Compaq portable II HDD

[alexkerhead]

Does anyone have a hard drive they know for sure will work in the compaq portable II?
The one I have is shot, wont even low level.
I tried a st-225, but it wont work with the wd mfm ide converter card.
I need a 20MB IDE HDD. 615cyl, 4 head preferably.

[Terry Yager]

Got one (40Mb, IIRC), but it ain't for sale/swap. I will take a look and let ya know the model #, if that'll help.

--T

[alexkerhead]

I know the model number of the miniscribe in this beast, but I dont want to pay $100 for one off a site that has one.

[Terry Yager]

Yah, dot's why I don't wanna give mine up. Y'know, you could always replace drive & controller with sum'n more compatible, if functionality is more important than authenticity to ya.

--T

[alexkerhead]

Tried, the bios program wont use it, like it disables the third party controller bios.

[Terry Yager]

Wow, I've never encountered that problem. Everything I've ever thrown at 'em worked. Are you using CompaqDOS version 3.31? It accepts a wider variety of drive types.

--T

[alexkerhead]

Wow, I've never encountered that problem. Everything I've ever thrown at 'em worked. Are you using CompaqDOS version 3.31? It accepts a wider variety of drive types.

--T
I wasn't aware I needed a compaq dos, I was using a standard dos 3.3.
I will try compaq dos and see if I can low level from there.

[Terry Yager]

It's just that version 3.31 was not restricted to the 32Mb boundry that handicapped earlier versions.

--T

[Micom 2000]

Checked out my Portable II. I didn't open it up but Snooper reports a 20 Mb Conner HD. That could be just what Snooper interpets tho. If pressed I could open it and check the model #. I've got Dos 5 on it by the way.

Lawrence