Data General Nova 4/X -- 6070 Disk is up!!!

From: Tom Jennings <tomj_at_wps.com>
Date: Wed Feb 23 13:40:48 2005

Whew! Talk about relief... my dual platterectomy/transplant was
successful. (I crashed both fixed and removable platters and
managed to install two new ones removed from removable
cartridges.)

I got Bruce's tape in the mail yesterday (DTOS 8.1) and it's got a
bunch of likely looking suspects on it, FMTRs and RELIs and DIAGs,
... just gotta figure out which one! Obviously, by running each,
failing miserably every time (formatters for floppies...
formatters for 20-platter disks...)

After battling the tape drive -- again! -- and to make a long
story short, it's GDKP FMTR (G=Gemini, DG's internal? project?
name for the 6070 Disk), determined by trial and mostly error.

The nasty old thing just formatted, no errors! I did six passes
(four recommended minimum -- if I wasn't so impatient I'd run 25,
but I've got a power problem...)

Not having any SYSGEN docs on hand (I wasn't optimistic enough
apparently) I'd only puzzled out that the RDOS distro tape file #4
is the disk initializer, DKINIT. Ran that. Did five more passes of
pattern tests. Still zero errors.

Now to print out RDOS SYSGEN docs!

tomj



* The tape drive would not load! My lab is cold, 60 degrees. I
powered on the tapedrive for 30 min. before attempting to boot.
Still no load! So I yanked out each of the ##$%^ vacuum switches,
stuck each on the manometer and found -- all of them precisely in
spec. Reinstalled, still no go, but it almost loaded (halt on seek
BOT). The short of it is, I waited an hour, and it worked.
Temperature!

I left the disk powered on, in LOAD, for > 60 minutes before going
to READY (head load). It was 70 - 72 degrees inside the cabinet.
Now I know! Though I wonder if a winter format will be readable in
summer. I'll ahve A/C by then, but it'll be closer to 80F.



* Up until this past summer, I had a purpose-built (well,
converted 1920's garage) 400 sq ft lab, insulated, 400 amp
electrical service, heat and A/C, skylights and a garage door...
my dream lab! But economic reality reared it's ugly right-wing
face, and I was forced to turn it into an income-generating rental
unit.

So I've moved operations into the much smaller and nastier garage.
One "20 amp" (sic) fused circuit for everything, leaky doors,
barely insulated. This Nova 4 system SUCKS POWER, the line cord
has a good 10-degree temp. rise! Clearly inadequate, I'll fix,
etc. I assume it's a good 10 amps, maybe 15.

Very Soon Now I'll run 100 amps over from the house (we have 400
there) and four circuits, one outlet at least for this beast.



6070 CARTRIDGE DISK FORMATTER
SET SWREG AS PER SECT 8.1 OR (CR) TO CONTINUE


START TIME ? - MON DAY YR HR MIN
2 23 05 00
  # PASSES TO FORMAT COMPLETION ? - 4

ENTER (UNIT#,MIN,MAX) SURFACES FOR EACH UNIT
OR "CR" TO USE PREVIOUS ENTRY.
0,0,3

FORMATTING UNIT 0,
FORMAT DONE - VERIFYING PACK

[time passes, console log chatter here]

PASS 4

         FORMATTING COMPLETED.

DRIVE - 0
SECTORS READ - 316344
SECTORS WRITTEN - 195840

BAD SECTOR
CYL- HEAD- SECT-
DATA ERRORS
CYL- HEAD- SECT- COUNT
ADDRESS ERROR
CYL- HEAD- SECT- COUNT

0 = # OF BAD SECTORS ON CYLINDER 0
0 = # OF BAD SECTORS MAX ON CYLINDER # -0
0 = # OF BAD SECTORS MAX ON SURFACE # -0
0 = # OF BAD SECTORS TOTAL


TYPE RESTART "(ADR)R" TO CONTINUE
656
_at_





[cpu reset]

000000
!100022L
FROM MT0:4


DISK INITIALIZER - REV 06.60

DISK DRIVE MODEL NUMBER? 6070

6070 (20 MEGABYTE) DRIVE TYPE

6070 (20 MEGABYTE) DRIVE TYPE

DISK UNIT? DP0

COMMAND? h

UNKNOWN COMMAND - COMMANDS ARE
FULL,PARTIAL,TEST,LIST,FRAME,REMAP,ENTER,DISK,STOP

COMMAND? FULL

COMMAND DESTROYS ANY PREVIOUS RDOS DISK STRUCTURE
RDOS INIT/F MUST BE DONE ON DISK AFTER COMMAND
TYPE CONTROL-A NOW TO ABORT WITHOUT LOSS

NUMBER OF PATTERNS TO RUN (1-5) ? 4

*** PATTERN # 1 (155555) ***
L
*** PATTERN # 2 (133333) ***

*** PATTERN # 3 (066667) ***

*** PATTERN # 4 (155556) ***

*** ALL PATTERNS RUN ***

DO YOU WISH TO DECLARE ANY BLOCKS BAD
THAT ARE NOT ALREADY IN THE BAD BLOCK TABLE? N

ANSWER YES OR NO

DO YOU WISH TO DECLARE ANY BLOCKS BAD
THAT ARE NOT ALREADY IN THE BAD BLOCK TABLE? NO

DEFAULT REMAP AREA SIZE IS 48 BLOCK(S) LONG
IT NEEDS TO BE AT LEAST 0 BLOCK(S) LONG

REMAP AREA SIZE (TYPE RETURN FOR DEFAULT) ?

REMAP AREA START BLOCK NUMBER (TYPE RETURN FOR DEFAULT) ?

DEFAULT FRAME SIZE IS 83,
MIN IS 1, AND MAX IS 816

DISK FRAME SIZE (TYPE RETURN FOR DEFAULT) ?

FULL DISK INIT COMPLETE
COMMAND? hH

UNKNOWN COMMAND - COMMANDS ARE
FULL,PARTIAL,TEST,LIST,FRAME,REMAP,ENTER,DISK,STOP

COMMAND? STOP
013174
!
Received on Wed Feb 23 2005 - 13:40:48 GMT