GPIB + disk drives

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Mon Mar 23 12:37:21 1998

Doug,

  I saw Tony's reply and responded to it before seeing this one. I thought
you had an HP drive but since it's a GRID drive I can't say what kind of
format or command set it uses.

At 06:54 PM 3/22/98 -0600, you wrote:
>I could use a quick tutorial on GPIB as it applies to computer device
>interfacing.
>
>I want to read an external hard disk that belongs to a GRiD w/a GPIB
>interface. I recently picked up at National Instruments GPIB-PC-II card,
>found the drivers on their web site, and stuck the thing in my Toshiba
>T5200 (a nice little box that should hit classic status some time soon).
>
>The card and low-level drivers seem to work great, but I can't find any
>higher-level drivers that know how to talk to this drive (or any drive,
>for that matter). Do drives that talk GPIB all talk the same way? If so,
>any idea where I might be able to find an MS-DOS driver that sits on top
>of the GPIB driver I've installed?

   Many PC type HP-IB drivers assign the HP-IB interface as a COM or LPT
port and are used to drive plotters only, not disk drives.

>
>Should I give up on this approach and simply pull the drive out of the box
>and see if I can talk to it with an MFM controller? It's a 10MB 5.25"
>drive from around 1982, so I'm assuming it's a Seagate.

  You could try, I have no idea if it would work. I have one of the HP
kits with the HP-IB card and software that can be installed on a MS-DOS PC
to operate some of their disk and tape drives. Email me if you want to
borrow it and try to connect your drive with it.

   Joe

>
>-- Doug
>
>
>
Received on Mon Mar 23 1998 - 12:37:21 GMT