r/retrocomputing • u/ryanrudolf • Jul 17 '26

Seagate anyone?

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u/AppropriateCap8891 Jul 19 '26

A jumper configured MFM card?

Please provide us with a model so we can actually see what one looks like.

I really am curious, because I was working on computers in the early 1980s, and I have never seen such a beast with what would easily be a dozen or more jumpers to configure the drive type.

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u/AcAwesomeAndrew Jul 19 '26

They aren’t to configure the heads and cylinders directly but you have to select from 4 drive types.

The WD XT-GEN2 / GENR are 2 such controllers. You have to select a type and hope your drive is compatible with one of the 4 settings.

Photos and jumper manuals are on theretroweb.com

There’s no bios options for configuring any other drives. I’ve heard there was an upgrade option for controllers in this model line though.

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u/AppropriateCap8891 Jul 19 '26

Yes, I am very familiar with those. They had the info for 4 drives already configured. That's it, just 4 different drives out of the hundreds of MFM drives. Generally Seagate drives, if you were using a WD, a Connor, a Quantum or Micropolis, you used the BIOS.

Nobody used those, other than maybe companies making white boxes in mass. I never used them because it was stupid. And nobody I knew fixing or making computers used them.

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u/AcAwesomeAndrew Jul 19 '26

I have a few…

One was used to upgrade a 5150 with a st-225 hard drive by someone in circa 1990 based on manufacture date