HP9000/300 Computers, CS80 Disks and Windows

From: Maxwell K. Froedge <keith_at_saracom.com>
Date: Mon Jul 21 13:13:04 2003

At 09:33 PM 7/17/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>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.
>
> 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 am fairly sure that is correct. Its at work and I am at home though



> 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!

Yep, I can boot. But the backup tapes are not bootable. And the SRM software
chokes in the Viper board. Complains that a drive is not attached to the high
speed buss.

> Also do you HAVE to have a 7937? I have some 7957s, 7958, 9153s and
>other CS-80 drives.
>

If I go back with the origianl configuration, I need a "large" drive. I
think the
7937 is 571 meg.


>???? 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.


I am not sure I have enough free room on the remaining drive. We had though of
just blowing away the files on the remaining and installing the backup to
it. However,
while we have backups we have are hesitant to take a production system down for
this. The SRM backup may not even be LIF. I only get 1 entry when I read it
from a booted Viper board. Basic does seem to know what to do with it. And I
can't boot the Viper with SRM.

> >
> >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.

It gives some sort of number instead of HFS or LIF.


> >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.

I was hoping it had gotten farther along.

Thanks
Max
Received on Mon Jul 21 2003 - 13:13:04 BST