30 Aug
2006
30 Aug
'06
10:21 a.m.
On Tuesday 29 August 2006 05:04 pm, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 8/29/2006 at 1:47 PM Zane H. Healy wrote:
I also remember some instances where you couldn't replace a failed controller
with another one of the same brand, but of a different model. And sometimes
even if they were the same model, but different "BIOS" (?) or other software
revisions would screw things up.
Why was that?
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
I suspect, but this is only a guess, that the
issue is the way the DEC MFM
drives are formated. There are only two ways that I'm aware of to format
an MFM drive for use on a VAX. One is with a MicroVAX/VAXstation 2000
(formatter is built into the ROM's), the other is with the Field Service
Diagnostics (customer diagnostics can't format drives).
Bingo. Even back in the old PC XT/AT MFM days, you couldn't always take an
MFM drive formatted on one manufacturer's controller and use it as-is on
another's.