31 Dec
2012
31 Dec
'12
7:01 p.m.
On 12/31/2012 08:43 PM, Peter Coghlan wrote:
I've formatted many a drive used in and returned from PCs. MY
experience has
been if the drive was woking it was formatible.
Dives formatted:
Quantum D540
Microplous 1325s from PCs
St506, 412, 225, 235, 250
Maxtor 150mb models
and a few others that are notable by my memory failing to remember them.
All of the RD5x both RQDX1/2 and RQDX3(Note RQDX3 has a slightly
different format)
All of the RX (excluding RX180)
The VS2000 is the universal formatter and a lot easier than using the
RQDX formatters.
I made the
same experience when I performed a "DEC-format-marathon" with ten
ST-225 drives which were neither DEC-labeled nor where DEC-formatted before.
Most of my disk drives where successfully formatted after having entered the
drive parameters for the "TEST 70" procedure, but in case of some drives,
the procedure was aborted. These drives where not successfully recognised
as RD31 and no format was performed by my microVAX-2000 in these cases.
What I found out is that the drives which were not recognised as RD31's were
drives with some bad blocks detected when formatted with a PC.
Can anybody else comment on or has made that experience?
I successfully formatted several oddball non-DEC-branded drives rescued from
a skip (dumpster) using a VS2000. It was a long time ago and I don't remember
the details but I suspect some at least had a list of bad blocks on the label.
I seem to recall that I did not have any way of knowing what the correct
parameters were and I found some by extrapolating from the example in the manual
and by trial and error. I agree with the general view that they should be
jumpered as DS3 for the internal drive. I eventually made a new drive cable so that I could
have a "hot swappable"
disk outside the case. This worked great until I came upon one particular drive
which, when I pushed the connectors onto it, the VS2000 PSU promptly switched
itself off. I was somewhat puzzled as I was using an external PSU for the disk
and could not have been overloading the VS2000 PSU or so I thought. I pulled
off the connectors, power cycled the machine and tried connecting the drive
again and the same thing happened. Not to be defeated, I tried connecting all
the cables up and then powering up the VS2000. This time the PSU tried harder,
the machine powered up and one of the wires in the data cable turned itself into
a heating element, melted and nearly set fire to its insulation. It seems that
one of the wires in the data lead to the external drive has a not very well
protected +5V on it and at least one drive variant shorts this to ground...
Yes,
there were a few that had grounds up top (even side) or jumperable
configuration that resulted in grounds on top.
The VS2000 and the RQDXn all put 5V for the terminator on the cable as
well.
Allison