> > I think the disk drives are going to be using 520 byte sectors, instead of
> > 512-byte, or something else sane.  I know solaris can handle them, as I
> > have one IBM scsi drive I ripped out of an old AS/400.  It runs
> > flawlessly, except for that it likes to get hot..
> 
> I tried formatting them on my VS3100 breadboard using test 75.  Alas,
> they did not take to formatting.  There must be some minor IBMisms

If they're set to the wrong sector size, just doing a format isn't enough.
You need to write to a mode page to change the sector size first, then
do a format.  Many (most?) platforms and software are not set up to do
that.