Dilog DQ614 diagnostics program first tests

From: Pete Turnbull <pete_at_dunnington.u-net.com>
Date: Thu Jan 3 15:12:55 2002

On Jan 3, 8:53, Ethan Dicks wrote:

> Personally, I plan to pick something that is _not_ a drop-in replacement
> for a DEC drive - I can format all sorts of stuff on an RQDX3, but it's
> nice to stick to the right models when you can to make drive geometry
> tables in the OS and/or drivers match.

Sensible idea. And RQDX1/RQDX2 need the "right" drives; they do bizarre
tests to see what they have connected (like stepping to illegal tracks) and
won't work unless the drive matches something hardcoded into the RQDX
"microcode".

> Have you formatted this drive on another controller and scanned for
> bad blocks? I know the RQDX3 has a "standard" way of handling them
> (well... standard for the RQDX line), so I'm not sure there's a
> "factory BBL" to reference

Not on MFM/ST412-type drives, no.

> or if there is, that the DQ614 does reference
> it, but I would see if the drive passes a low-level format on something
> else, perhaps a WD1003 in an old 486 that still has the format option
> in the BIOS menu. You could also try it on a WX-1 with its BIOS
> formatter (accessed through debug, typically).

The DQ614P program should include several controller and drive exercises
and tests, and a bad block (actually a bad track) utility.

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York
Received on Thu Jan 03 2002 - 15:12:55 GMT

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