Date : Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:26:31 +0100
From : bbcmailinglist@... (Ian Wolstenholme)
Subject: Hard Discs & SyQuest 44;
I have had a lot of success with 50-pin SCSI hard discs in my main MDFS
which has the SCSI-2 mod and the parity mod.
I've used drives up to 4GB in the MDFS but only the first 480MB of space
is available. I haven't had any luck with 68-pin or 80-pin SCSI drives, with
adapters to plug them into the 50-pin socket on the MDFS so I can only
assume that these are incompatible.
I have never had any trouble with using Syquest 44MB drives with the
MDFS and I have even persuaded these to work with a BBC host adapter.
You might need to check the jumpers at the back of the drive, which are
coded with letters. Make sure X and T are empty as these are for test
purposes. A, B and C are the three bits of the SCSI ID (A=1, B=2 and C=4)
so make sure there is no conflict between the ID and any other device
connected to the MDFS. Also remember to avoid IDs of 4 (reserved for
tape drive) and 7 which is the MDFS itself.
You might need to set jumper "P" which I think is for parity, try it with or
without to see if it makes any difference and the final thing to look at
is whether terminating resistors are installed at the back where there is
a bank of three SIL type resistor packs.
When the Syquest drive is powered up (independently of the MDFS)
and a disc inserted, it should spin up with the familiar Syquest gurgling
and then the light should go green. If this is not happening then there
might be a fault with the drive or the disc.
In utility mode, the MDFS should recognise the Syquest drive when you
list all available drives. If the parallel printing light comes on then it
means there is a system message indicating an error.
Best wishes,
Ian
----- Original Message -----
From: Johan Heuseveldt [mailto:johan@...]
To: bbc-micro@...
Sent: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:35:04 +0200 (BST)
Subject: [BBC-Micro] Hard Discs & SyQuest 44;was: Possibly available: SJ FDFS
Hi all,
(informational update)
On Thu 12 Apr, Johan Heuseveldt wrote:
> On Thu 12 Apr, Jonathan Graham Harston wrote:
> > >Message-ID: <Marcel-1.53-0409125350-d07xSBG@...>
> > Johan Heuseveldt <johan@...> wrote:
> In a few days I will buy a 100MB Conner HD for reserve.
> Not sure if that HD will be recognised by MDFS though.
> But I do want a spare.
The person has thrown out all the old stuff into the bin, including
this drive. :-(((
He no longer could afford the shelf space. Real pitty.
I got another drive, costing the same fiver.
It has a high density connector, and included a small adaptor board
to a more normal 50 pins connector.
But the drive wasn't recognised by the MDFS.
(I didn't check on the RiscPC, because I lacked the necessary cables)
Recently, I came (again) across a reference to a modification to
the drive or the MDFS server - or both, that makes it possible to
use SCSI-2 hard discs with the MDFS server. I think BeebMaster knows
about this, as he sells a few hard discs with this mod.
> I also have, but not tried yet, a SyQuest 40 MB removable, which I would
> like to use for backups. Lots of work and fun to look out for. :-)
Other experiments were done with two SyQuest 44MB removable hard discs.
One of them was very succesful, the other not at all. It could be the
firmware on board of them, as their respective version numbers were
different.
The case in which they are housed is also a bit different.
One [A] is labeled with 'POWERUSER', and is originally intended
for an Apple computer. The previous owner told me so. It was fully
recognised by the MDFS. Formatting it was very simple from the *FAST
menu. In use it is a very fast drive. I couldn't notice the
difference with the normal hard drive.
The other [B] is branded as 'PLI' and 'Infinity 40 Turbo'. At the
underside a lable says 'Serial No. 6274' and 'Model No. INF40T'.
The style of this case looks older than the case of [A].
Both are checked on the Risc PC,
and are shown in Cumana's 'SCSI Manager' as:
Size Vendor Product Rev
-----------------------------------------
[A] 42 MBytes SyQuest SQ555 G2E
[B] 42 MBytes SyQuest SQ555 FFH
The firmware revision 'Rev' seems to acknowledge that [B] is
older than [A]?
Does anybody know whether or not certain models are properly
recognised by MDFS?
(file server is version 2)
I think using the SyQuest is a very useful concept when visiting
club meetings, as the disc can be removed, and taken care of
seperately. Traveling with the real hard disc unit squared me too
much, as I could loose the only hard disc I have, while having a
dozen, or so, 44 MBytes SyQuest removables. The only drawback is,
I can't show off with the original hard disc unit! :-)
Greetings,
Johan
--
Johan Heuseveldt <johan@... >
aka waarland
The best place is a Riscy place
If everything seems to be going well,
you have obviously overlooked something.
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