HP9000/300 Computers, CS80 Disks and Windows

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Thu Jul 17 20:41:03 2003

At 11:09 AM 7/16/03 -0700, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I am new to the list.
>
>My classic computer collection is mainly DEC but I
>must use "classic" HPs at work. Hence my current
>problem.
>
>We have multiple HP9000/300 computers connected via SRM
>to a HP9826 computer running SRM ver 3.12. We also
>have several standalone Viper board based PCs.

Hi Max, I have a pile of vipers too. I've hooked up one of them and played
with it but never got around to doing anything serious with them. I've been
collecting HP 9000 200 and 300s for several years and have a good size pile
of them along with the disk drives and other bits and pieces.

>
>My current problem is that one of the hard drives
>attached to the HP9826 has died. It was a HP7937 HP-IB
>drive. I believe it was a CS80 device.

   A 7937? Are you sure that's the right model number? I don't recognize it
and it's not in my configuration book. (I'm too tired/lazy to go dig
through the catalogs.)



 I have backups
>made with a HP9144 tape drive.
>
>We could buy a refurbished drive. We were quoted $1300
>for a HP7937. I would like to avoid that. Since I only
>need a few files from the backup and my application
>could run from the Viper board, if I could get the
>files into a MS-DOS format, my problem would be solved.

     I quess you don't know that you CAN boot from a 9144. I read in one of
the HP manuals that you could but they said that they don't recommend it
except in cases of emergencies. I had plenty of 9144s and tapes and wasn't
worried about wearing them out so I tried it and it worked! It took about
15 minutes instead of 5 seconds, but it worked!

   Also do you HAVE to have a 7937? I have some 7957s, 7958, 9153s and
other CS-80 drives.
   
>
>
>I looked through the archives and ran across a thread
>"HP storage formats on ss80 protocol disks". It seems
>work has begun on a Windows program to read at least
>LIF volumes attached to a NI-GPIB board. I have acess
>to such.
>
>The files are RMB ver 5.13 files. The drive that died
>was not the boot device.


???? If the dead drive isn't the boot device then why can't you boot and
then read the files from the tape? Then just dunp it over a null MODEM
cable to a PC or other computer of your choice. Or you can put it on a
floppy disks and use the LIF Utils to read that into a PC. The LIF Utils
are now public domain and can be downloaded from several places on the net
including from HP.

>
>Couple of questions:
>1) What format is the SRM backups in? LIF? HFS? Other?

   AFIK backups aren't in any specail or compressed format. They're in the
same format as the operating drives. I've neve rused the SRM OS so I don't
know what format it uses but if you do a CAT of a drive it will tell you at
the top of the listing what the format is.


>2) Peter Brown, would you share your software?

    I'm sure that he will share it but it's not going to help much. It just
does a raw data dump. It doesn't care about directories, sub-directories,
file allocation or anything else. it just starts at sector 1 bit 1 and
dumps the entire drive.

    Joe

>
>I am also open to other suggestions. If you have a
>HP7937 drive or similar, we can talk. Either purchase
>or trade. We have a spare HP9826 computer with a dead
>display along with extra HP9000/300 computers.
>
>
>Thanks
>Max
Received on Thu Jul 17 2003 - 20:41:03 BST