6 Jan
2021
6 Jan
'21
5:52 a.m.
There are people that tried, it doesn't work. There's something proprietary
written at low level that gets erased doing a low level format ( required to change the
sectors ). The specifics were never released...
With this I mean that the trick is not the firmware of the disk, but low level bits on the
platters
About the automatic shutdowns/restarts , I agree but I think it's a feature that was
mainly directed at smaller AS used in satellite offices to support the local workforce and
that had nothing going on, as a consequence, outside of business hours
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of Patrik Schindler via
cctalk
Sent: Wednesday, January 6, 2021 2:22 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: DEDICATED HOBBYIST ALERT: IBM AS/400 9406-F2 for cheap sale in Germany
Hello,
Am 06.01.2021 um 13:37 schrieb mazzinia at tin.it:
Hm, I never verified that claim. Maybe I once had such an ex-AS/400 disk in earlier times
which might sit unrecognized in my hard disk drawer. I can?t confirm your claim but I
doubt it?s true: Firmware extensions will not get overridden from a reformat, and you can
always reformat with 522 Bytes/Sector. I bet it will work again.
What I
understood from your last posting is that once you reformat an AS/400 disk for 512 Bytes
per sector as used by commodity hardware, you can?t use it again on AS/400, even by
reformatting.
Yes, that's correct And I doubt that there's an orderly shutdown from
the panel?
That?s exactly what I wanted to express. :-)
I remember being told of only one procedure, but it
would not cause damages/issues of sort.
I?ve read about that procedure in an IBM (red)book and it?s ?not recommended for regular
use?. I would need to look up the source if you want a proof.
In any case we're speaking about something that
was meant to be turned on and never turned off unless some maintenance or a big issue.
The OS has highly sophisticated scheduling for automatic start and shutdown, with possible
exceptions per weekday and one-time exceptions like holidays. (Type GO POWER into the
command line to see the menu.) I guess even one or two decades back, there was reason to
save power.
and for a catastrophe where the terminal is not
accessible
That?s what I mean. The procedure is not meant to be used as a substitute for pwrdwnsys.
:wq! PoC