17 Apr
2008
17 Apr
'08
7:22 p.m.
Exabyte (now Tandberg Data) still has firmware images
for the various drives that support firmware updates.
I went there, and grabbed some images for the 8505XLS,
in order to fool it into thinking it is an 8200.
Be warned: The "EXPERT FOR DOS" utility, for updating firmware
has a glitch in it which may leave you with an unuseable drive,
if you choose the wrong update the first time around.
The program greys-out the "Firmware update" button on drives
that don't support firmware updates, such as the 8200.
So, if you flash your 8505 with 8200 compatability firmware,
EXPERT FOR DOS will read your drive as an 8200, and won't
let you re-flash the firmware a second time !
EXPERT will politely show you the HARDWARE model number
of your drive to be an 8505, but relies on the ID string that
the drive returns, to determine if your drive is a model
that supports flashing.
A very stupid oversight on their part.
So now I have an 8505, that is "sort of" flashed as an 8200,
but not with the features I need.
What's that you say? Simply re-flash the firmware, using
the "special cable" that connects to the back of the drive?
Easy enough if you have a 4-pin connector on the back.
It's standard RS232.
Of course, I have to have the older 3-pin model,
which is TTL, and needs a leveling adapter. . .
It's cheaper and easier for me to buy a different drive,
than it is to assemble the required programming to fix the glitch.
T