HP 9133XV disc drive question - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

20 Aug 2004

"RHahm" &lt;rhahm(a)nycap.rr.com&gt; wrote:
...
  I recently aquired an HP 9133XV combination 3.5"
floppy and 15M HD with an
 HPIB interface and Amigo protocol.

 I tried to use the drive with an HP 86B and an HP 85B computer. The floppy
 works fine but the computer will not recognize the hard drive. The HD seems
 to spin up normally. 
Do you have the option 010 for your 9133XV. The HP product catalog
implies that only opt 010 works with the Series 80.

In general Series 80 computers cannot really deal with a hard drive.
They only know about floppies, and since they have only one-level
directories, there is little to be gained from large capacity hard
drives. So HP cheated. Since (at that time) hard drives were small (5
to 10 Mb), they provided special firmware on the hard drive to create 4
hard partitions, each the size of the largest floppy drive recognized
by the Series 80. So the HP 9133A 4.6 Mb hard drive is split into 4
1.2Mb volumes.

However for late Series 80 models, HP did something else as well.
An intriguing note in the HP catalog says:

...
  The HP 9133B and the HP9134B are single volume 9.6M
byte Winchesters
 which can operate with the HP-85B or the HP-86B; they can also operate
 with an HP-86A or HP-87 when used with an 00087-15012 Electronic Disc
 ROM and ROM drawer. 9.6M byte Winchesters are supported under native
 mode. 
What the ^%@#$@ does this mean? Does the Electronic Disc ROM contain code
to soft partition a 9.6Mb volume? I do have an Electronic Disc ROM for
my 87XM, but I have neither the documentation nor a suitable Winchester.

Any clues are welcome.

**vp