Using ADT's *DEX doesn't work as the same error occurs. I also tried several other ideas, such as changing the sector size in the mode select to 512 and 1024 bytes, in case it was previously formatted in a PC, but nothing got as far as reading some data from the disc so the conclusion is that the disc isn't formatted.
I'm always wary of formatting an old Winchester disc in case there is some valuable data on it in a format not yet discovered, so I've left it be after this.