NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/comp/sys/dec/5848

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-09 | 1.4 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!zl2tnm!toyunix!don
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Re: Help with Maxtor XT-2190
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
From: [e-mail] (Don Stokes)
Date: 9 Nov 92 08:17:40 GMT
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[e-mail] (Dennis Gray Jr.) writes:
> Does this mean that you can use any MFM drive in a micro vax?  (how
> about a vax station?)  If this is true, is there a MAX # of
> heads/cyls?

Well, sort of.  An RQDX3 controller or MicroVAX 2000 can cope with pretty
much any MFM drive, but formatting it is a bugger.  A VS2000 can format it
from the console prompt, but you need to know how to generate some magic
numbers (and I don't).  If you have a MicroVAX or MicroPDP-11 with an RQDX3
you need the field service diagnostic kit, and said magic numbers.  I don't
think the customer diags have a good enough formatter on 'em.  Getting the
formatter out of Field Service appears not to be possible.  8-(
(Aww, c'mon DEC!)

If you have an RQDX2 or RQDX1, you're stuck with the DEC drives (and only
the older ones at that).

--
Don Stokes, ZL2TNM (DS555)                        [e-mail] (home)
Network Manager, Computing Services Centre            [e-mail] (work)
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand              [phone]