Xebec 'Trustor' 30MB Drive - Pre-Sider

[a2aviator@gmail.com]

I have a couple of Xebec Trustor drives, these are pre-Sider
manufactured, though actually the date codes on them overlap that of
what I have in the Sider collection too.

The one in question, after fixing the controller card issue I found, I
am able to still only access the drive and get an immediate I/O
error.

Patching DOS 3.3 and going in from the outside produces the same
result on any of the (estimated) volumes within the drive.

The Trustor is very similar to the Sider except that the Sider is a
more completed product for the simpler end-user, where as the Trustor
required some knowledge to set them up.

the Trustor can be setup with SiderWare, as well- but you will end up
with the same wasted partitions that SiderWare gives you - unless you
do it manually, and that includes all the drive geometry and entering
the defect list manually.

My question is, this:

I'm getting a "NON-MEDIA ERROR 8A" on the drive access when using the
diagnostics that come on the Sider. The drive seeks and accesses. It's
a Quantum 540 based drive. It does come ready on it's own, it's not
making any weird noises, etc.

Spins up, re-calibrates and waits.

I swapped the drive PCB from another Q540 onto it, and with that PCB
it does not come ready, I made sure the firmware and microcontroller
were the same, by swapping them between the cards. The drives are
about 55,000 serial #'s apart. one being in the 5,000's and the other
in the 60,000's.

I'm fairly sure the platters are not harmed as I noted, the drive does
come ready, It appears to not be reading the parameter block on the
high level part of all this. (that being what the host adapter/
configuration utility has written) - I have a pretty good clue what
the configuration block is supposed to me.

I may have to ask some questions of the original drive holder to see
if I can trigger some memories of it's specific setup. Super volumes
or not, etc.

If I have to resort to the poor mans clean room.. everything stuck
into a frame-supported  clear trash bag with a coffee filter over a
round screen and a vacuum cleaner on low sucking raw air out- and I
place all the tools inside and seal the whole thing up with tape.. and
let it suck air for an hour after I move everything around inside..

Then you can use the tools by holding them with the sides of the bag-
as the sides are not taut enough. Sounds ghetto.. but.. it works.

What I'm wondering is if anyone here has had any experience working
within those older full height 5.25" Quantum drives. In the years past
I had about 4 of these all go bad in about the same way, but in those
days I just got a new drive and put it in.