17 May
2009
17 May
'09
5:24 a.m.
cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
Message: 26
Date: Sat, 16 May 2009 12:31:25 -0400
From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: DEC ST506 Interface Adapter Part No 54-17003-01
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Message-ID:
<f4eb766f0905160931veb8ff8ax6957d5c2abd0d432 at mail.gmail.com>
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On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Julian Skidmore
<julianskidmore at yahoo.com> wrote:
However, all information is not just located on the disk either.
The RQDX1 and RQDX2 use a format that is incompatible with the RQDX3. In
order to use an RD52 (for instance) that has been formatted on a RQDX2
on a RQDX3, you need to reformat it...
Also, an RQDX1 or RQDX2 cannot control an RD54. No matter what
formatting program you use. You need the RQDX3 for that.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
> >> I thought it could only format
"known" disk types, not arbitrary disks
> >> (a firmware limitation in the formatter application, not a hardware
> >> limitation).
>
> Surely, it's possible to hack an RQDX3 controller's ROM to support arbitrary
geometries?
The geometries aren't in the RQDXn ROMs - the formatter application
writes them to the disk during the formatter process.
There are three VAX formatters I know of - the ROMs on a VS/uV2000,
the Customer Runnable Diagnostics (CRD) and the Field Service
diagnostics.
I know the CRD formatter only allows you to select known drives from a
menu table and the Field Service formatter allows you to enter
arbitrary values (i.e., has a menu plus a fill-in page). The
ROM-based formatter on the VS/uV2000 was the one I appear to have
mis-remembered the capabilities of.
No hacking of the RQDX3 is required, just selection of the right
formatter application.