Epson QX-10, CP/M

From: Lawrence Walker <lwalker_at_mail.interlog.com>
Date: Thu Jul 23 01:04:13 1998

> On Thu, 23 Jul 1998, PG Manney wrote:
>
> > I have a customer (Yes, Virginia, I have two customers) who has an Epson
> > QX-10 running CP/M.
> >
> > His (external) hard disk is reporting bad sectors; he wishes to switch to an
> > ST-506/412 Vertex 185, which I think is 20 MB.
>
> I find no data for the Vertex 185, but it should have at least as many heads
> and cylinders as the disk replaced. That is, unless the CP/M HD format
> program is more flexible than most.
>
 According to my Que" UG & R PCs" the Vertex is a 71.0 meg hdd. There's
only 4 of them listed, the smallest being mod. V130 at 25.8 megs. I used this
chart to recover 10 megs using Spinright for a 32 Miniscribe hdd that had been
low-l formatted at 20. The sheet says it has 1166 cyls. , 7 heads , 17 sectors
per track , and a Write Precomp of 128.

> > I would like to test the Vertex 185 under Spinrite (MS-DOS) and expand the
> > bad track table, if Spinrite discovers more problems.
> >
> > I have questions --
> >
> > Will the bad track information carry over under CP/M, and will its format
> > utility see the MS-DOS info? Otherwise, should we just make a list and enter
> > it?
>
> I think not. Most CP/M HD format programs that I have run across do not
> offer the facility to enter bad block data. After format, run a program
> such as FINDBAD.COM, which will identigy bad blocks and mark them as used
> in the USER 15 directory.
>
> > Is there a low-level format utility in CP/M? Is it necessary, as under
> > MS-DOS?
>
> It is all done in a single operation. No separate LL and HL formats.
> The entire disk will be filled with sectors full of 0E5H's.
>
> > What is the QX-10 controller card going to think of a different hard drive?
>
> Probably, won't note it.
>
> > Will it try to run the new drive as a 10 MB?
>
> As I said, unless it is a more flexible than most HD format program, it
> will format the same number of heads and cylinders as the previous HD.

???????

>
> > Thanks,
>
> Your welcome.
> - don
> > manney_at_lrbcg.com
> >
 Am I missing something here ? Where is the hdd info stored ?
If each machine was tied to one size , how are fdds upgraded ? Would a driver
for BIOS normally come with each machine or hdd?
 I'm obviously a neophyte at CP/M and wrestling at this time with a Dec RB
which is even more confusing cause it also runs MSDOS. I also have a QX-10 that
I will eventually be struggling with when I find an Epson monitor, a KayPro 2X
that I still haven't gotten up and running , not to mention the TRS80 m.ll .
  I've the QX-10 CP/M Primer which is very basic and cutesy like some of the
Vic20 manuals. I have a Micro C.Books "CP/M and the Personal Computer" by Dwyer
& Critchfieldand , "The Programmers CP/M Handbook" from Osbourne/McGraw-Hill ,
and the XEROX "CP/M 80 and CP/M 86" manual from DRI. What do you recommend.

ciao larry
lwalker_at_interlog.com
Received on Thu Jul 23 1998 - 01:04:13 BST