AT&T 3b2 vs SCSI2SD drive replacement

[Pete Turnbull]

On 01/06/2016 23:51, Swift Griggs wrote:

> Does anyone have such a beast and can share a model # ? If they are cheap
> enough, I'd replace my current crapola 1X external "ace in the hole" CDROM
> with it. My hang-up has always been the block size issue.

Most Toshibas respond to the command, so pretty much anything later than 
an XM3401 - that's a 4x caddy drive with jumpers.  XM3601 is also 4x but 
with tray instead of caddy, though it still has jumpers for the block 
size.  I have both of those, and an XM3301 (2x) caddy drive.

O2s use XM5401 (4x), as does my Origin2000.  I regularly use an XM5701 
(12x) on one of my Indys, an XM6401 (32x) on another and I recently 
bought a Toshiba SD-M1401 ex-Sun DVD-ROM drive that is working happily 
on the Indy that used to have the XM5701.  These are all jumperless for 
the block size.

SGI once had special firmware for some of the early supported Toshiba 
CDROM drives, but that was only for the benefit of booting a really 
ancient miniroot on 4Ds.  Sun did the same thing.  I believe (but have 
never tested) that changing one of the pads on standard Toshiba XM3401 
(not SGI/Sun branded) enables the hack.  It's in the SGI FAQ.  I've 
never had any problem with random SCSI CDROMs, but all my SGIs are 
Indigos or later, and the few older Sparcstations I've had are happy 
with any firmware I tried.

I happen to like Toshibas, but I had an NEC Multispin (3x) that worked, 
and others swear by Plextor drives, and I believe Sun also used Hitachis.

-- 
Pete