> A few people have asked about low level formatting drives for uVAX here
> recently.  I have a question also...;-)
> 
> Why can't you just format the drive on a PC system?  All you'd need to know
> presumably is the interleave.

It's a bit more complicated than that. There's a geometry table at the 
start of the drive (that's why you don't have to tell your VAX what "drive 
type" you have) and a bad block table at the end.

As far as interleave goes, it's not _really_ critical; a drive will work at 
any interleave, it'll just be slower at some interleaves than at others. 
I.e., if interleave were the only problem, you could format a drive and 
have it useable even without knowing the proper interleave for the VAX.


Roger Ivie
ivie@cc.usu.edu