23 Jul
1998
23 Jul
'98
12:28 p.m.
On Thu, 23 Jul 1998, PG Manney wrote:
I have a customer (Yes, Virginia, I have two
customers) who has an Epson
QX-10 running CP/M.
His (external) hard disk is reporting bad sectors; he wishes to switch to an
ST-506/412 Vertex 185, which I think is 20 MB.
I find no data for the Vertex 185, but it should have at least as many heads
and cylinders as the disk replaced. That is, unless the CP/M HD format
program is more flexible than most.
I would like to test the Vertex 185 under Spinrite
(MS-DOS) and expand the
bad track table, if Spinrite discovers more problems.
I have questions --
Will the bad track information carry over under CP/M, and will its format
utility see the MS-DOS info? Otherwise, should we just make a list and enter
it?
I think not. Most CP/M HD format programs that I have run across do not
offer the facility to enter bad block data. After format, run a program
such as FINDBAD.COM, which will identigy bad blocks and mark them as used
in the USER 15 directory.
Is there a low-level format utility in CP/M? Is it
necessary, as under
MS-DOS?
It is all done in a single operation. No separate LL and HL formats.
The entire disk will be filled with sectors full of 0E5H's.
What is the QX-10 controller card going to think of a
different hard drive?
Probably, won't note it.
Will it try to run the new drive as a 10 MB?
As I said, unless it is a more flexible than most HD format program, it
will format the same number of heads and cylinders as the previous HD.
Thanks,
Your welcome.
- don
manney(a)lrbcg.com
donm(a)cts.com
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Don Maslin - Keeper of the Dina-SIG CP/M System Disk Archives
Chairman, Dina-SIG of the San Diego Computer Society
Clinging tenaciously to the trailing edge of technology.
Sysop - Elephant's Graveyard (CP/M) - 619-454-8412
*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*
see old system support at http://www.psyber.com/~tcj
visit the "Unofficial" CP/M Web site at http://cdl.uta.edu/cpm
with Mirror at http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~cfs/cpm