Subject: Re: Help With Maxtor XT-4380E MFM Hard Drives...
To: Robert Byer <byer@mail.ALL-NET.NET>
From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa@alph01.triumf.ca>
List: port-vax
Date: 06/06/1997 18:20:52
> I just got this machine that had two XT-4380E hard disks and one of them
> was dead, so I replaced it with another XT-4380E I had in another
> MicroVAX-II.
>
> So far so good, I now have a system that has 2 XT-4380E on a RQDX
> controller.
Well, a RQDX emulating controller. A XT-4380E is an ESDI drive, and
the DEC RQDX controllers only run MFM drives. Most likely you've
got a Dilog, Emulex, or Sigma/Webster/Qualogy ESDI controller.
> My problem, I can't write a disk label. I run "edlabel" and it runs just
> fine and I tell it to write the label, but when I go back to check the
> label, it's not their. When I load my handy-dandy diagnostics tape, it
> tells me that the hard disks are "off-line".
>
> If their anything special I have to do with these hard disks to get them to
> work?
Yep, you'll have to do a low-level format. The incantations you'll
have to make to do such a low-level format vary depending on who
made the ESDI controller. I have manuals for the Emulex and Sigma/Webster/
Qualogy controllers, and can point you toward the source for a Dilog
manual.
Tim. (shoppa@triumf.ca)