dab@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (david.a.berk) (11/09/89)
1) I'm contemplating buying a Perstore Hard Disk Controller which is supposed to increase my hard disk capacity by a factor of 1.9. Does anyone have any advise or experiences using this board with AT&T System V.3.2 Unix ? (Perstore informed me that it has been tested on Interactive Unix and runs well). 2) I bought a 60 meg Tape Backup unit from Bell Tech. about a year ago. Can the AT&T Tape Backup read from a Intel Tape and vica versa. 3. Can the 6386 read a floppy witten by a 3b2 ? ..!att!emdbl1!dab Dave Berk
psfales@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (Peter Fales) (11/09/89)
In article <6358@cbnewsm.ATT.COM>, dab@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (david.a.berk) writes: > 3. Can the 6386 read a floppy witten by a 3b2 ? I you mean mount a floppy with 3b2 file system, the answer is no. However, I have transferred cpio archives written to the raw floppy in both directions between a 3b2 and 6386 WGS. Use /dev/rdsk/f05qt. -- Peter Fales AT&T, Room 5B-420 N9IYJ 2000 N. Naperville Rd. UUCP: ...att!peter.fales Naperville, IL 60566 Domain: peter.fales@att.com work: (312) 979-8031
fmcgee@cuuxb.ATT.COM (~XT6561110~Frank McGee~C23~L25~6326~) (11/10/89)
In article <6358@cbnewsm.ATT.COM> dab@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (david.a.berk) writes: >1) I'm contemplating buying a Perstore Hard Disk Controller which is > supposed to increase my hard disk capacity by a factor of 1.9. > Does anyone have any advise or experiences using this board with > AT&T System V.3.2 Unix ? (Perstore informed me that it has been > tested on Interactive Unix and runs well). You'll need a Unix disk driver for the Perstore controller; AT&T doesn't provide this. The exception would be if the controller was hardware compatible with a Western Digital ST506 or ESDI controller. Notice my emphasis on hardware compatibility, not software. Since Unix doesn't use the ROM BIOS, BIOS extensions (ie, a ROM that makes the controller look like a Western Digital) doesn't buy you anything. It has to look like a Western Digital without the use of any ROM BIOS extensions. Also, the AT&T boot floppies won't recognize it since they don't know about Perstore controllers. >2) I bought a 60 meg Tape Backup unit from Bell Tech. about a year ago. > Can the AT&T Tape Backup read from a Intel Tape and vica versa. If you are running under Unix, the Bell Tech unit should be portable with AT&T units. Be carefull of media incompatibilities; it's a good idea to make sure all your drives use the same density. This is because although a 120/125 MB tape drive can read a 60 MB tape, it can't write a 60 MB tape. So if you have one machine with a 120 MB unit and one with a 60 MB unit, you can't transfer data from the 120 MB machine to the 60 MB machine (although you can go the other way). >3. Can the 6386 read a floppy witten by a 3b2 ? File systems - no (byte ordering). cpio archives - yes, if you use the -c (ascii header compatibility option). The proper device nodes for 3B floppies on 386 unix are suffixed with "5qt" (for example /dev/dsk/f05qt or /dev/rdsk/f05qt). Hope this answers your question, -- Frank McGee, AT&T Tier 3 Indirect Channel Sales Support attmail!fmcgee
gerry@zds-ux.UUCP (Gerry Gleason) (11/11/89)
In article <4615@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> psfales@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (Peter Fales) writes: >In article <6358@cbnewsm.ATT.COM>, dab@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (david.a.berk) writes: >> 3. Can the 6386 read a floppy witten by a 3b2 ? >I you mean mount a floppy with 3b2 file system, the answer is no. However, >I have transferred cpio archives written to the raw floppy in both >directions between a 3b2 and 6386 WGS. Use /dev/rdsk/f05qt. Wait a minute, if you can read the physical format, you should be able to mount it. Isn't a System V file system a System V file system (with the possible exception of version skews). What gives? Gerry Gleason
les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) (11/13/89)
In article <4615@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> psfales@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (Peter Fales) writes: >> 3. Can the 6386 read a floppy witten by a 3b2 ? >I you mean mount a floppy with 3b2 file system, the answer is no. However, >I have transferred cpio archives written to the raw floppy in both >directions between a 3b2 and 6386 WGS. Use /dev/rdsk/f05qt. The 3B2 uses the last track of the otherwise normal 720K format for its own purposes. Thus, transfers with other machines would be limited to archives that fit on a single disk unless you do some tricky stuff to merge the pieces. Les Mikesell les@chinet.chi.il.us
randy@chinet.chi.il.us (Randy Suess) (11/13/89)
In article <1989Nov13.145552.5367@chinet.chi.il.us> les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) writes:
]
]The 3B2 uses the last track of the otherwise normal 720K format for its
]own purposes. Thus, transfers with other machines would be limited to
]archives that fit on a single disk unless you do some tricky stuff
]to merge the pieces.
Uh, if you mean a 386 machine reading 3b2 floppies via cpio,
it works fine on multiple floppy archives. I do it all the
time. Seems cpio could care less that the last track is
bogus. How do you think your humongus $HOME directory got
transfered from the 3b2 to the 386, Les???
-randy
--
Randy Suess
randy@chinet.chi.il.us