Single-Drive Configuration       (only one hard drive in computer)


FOR: Western Digital WDXT-GEN controller (with ROM containing the F300 feature [Super BIOS]) connected to a single Seagate ST-213 drive.

REQUIREMENT: DOS boot floppy, containing DEBUG, FDISK, and FORMAT


PHASE 1 - SETUP

1. Connect up the WDXT-GEN controller and one ST-213 drive per the WDXT-GEN diagram here, noting the following:

    • That diagram shows a straight-through control cable, but if you have a twisted one, then compensate by following the gold coloured text in the diagram.
    • That diagram does not reflect any particular make-model of hard drive.


PHASE 2 - LOW-LEVEL FORMAT

2. Boot from the boot floppy.
3. Run DEBUG

    At the dash prompt, enter:  G=C800:5

4. The exact sequence from here on depends on the exact version of BIOS, but very shortly you will be presented with various questions.
    If you see questions that appear in the table below, then answer them as directed in the table. You may not see all of the questions.

Question	Answer	Comment
Drive number	0
Interleave	3	Affects performance only.  Can optimise later (after DOS installed) using SpinRite.
"Are you dynamically configuring the drive?"	Y
Disk characteristics	615 2 616 300 11 5	Characteristics of ST-213 drive.  Six numbers separated by spaces, per WDXT-GEN User's Guide  (here)
Virtually configuring the drive	N

    When all questions have been answered, low-level formatting will start and should take a few minutes.

5. When low-level formatting is complete, restart the computer.


PHASE 3 - FDISK/FORMAT

6. Follow the procedure at here
    That's for IBM DOS 3.3, but other versions will be similar.

After that, your hard drive should be booting to a DOS prompt.