mvolo@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Michael R. Volow) (08/30/89)
Thanks for all those who responded to my query regarding upgrade of Zenith 248 hard disks. > > I would like to hear from anyone who has successfully installed > a large hard drive (about 80 MB) in a Zenith 248. We currently > have such a machine, vintage 1986 I think, with a too-small > 40 MB HD (has no name on it but looks and sounds like a Miniscribe). > Our computer repair people say Zeniths tend to be very finicky about > what hardware you install in them. Thanks in advance. > > M Volow, VA Medical Center, Durham, NC 27705 > mvolo@ecsvax.UUCP 919 286 0411 Responses: *************************** I have installed many large drives in Zenith Z-248's. I have even added them as a second drive. Most of the 248's use a DTC controller of some type. Even with the older versions I haven't had any problems installing drives of less than 1024 cylinders. The only problems I have had with the older versions is that some won't work with certain versions of netware (Novell). Where you might have problems is with the BIOS ROM in your machine. Look at the ROM's on the CPU card. The BIOS ROM's are labeled 444-423-x and 444-424-x. The -x is the important part. ZDS is up to -10 now. The tables for the types of drives that the SET-UP configuration program uses are in the ROM's. Having up to date BIOS ROM's gives you more choices of Hard Drives. It also will let you more easily add 3.5" drives, and many other advatages. Highly recommended. I'm assuming you know how to low-level format,partition, and DOS format the drives you install. If you have any questions regarding that feel free to E-Mail me as it is hard to reach me by phone. Good luck. -- Kent Phelps | Internet: kent@sun.ufnet.ufl.edu University of Florida | UUCP: ... ???? Digital Design Facility| Phone: 904-335-8322 *************************** From: mroth%galaxy@BLACKBIRD.AFIT.AF.MIL (Mark A. Roth) We installed an ST506, 120MB drive on a Z248 with no problems. The disk is by Newbury Data Recording Limited. Sold to the government by Zenith on the Air Force contract. Mark Roth ************************** I currently have a Z-248 that I built that is running the following equipment; OMTI ESDI hard drive controller Fujitsu 2245 120 meg ESDI drive Fujitsu 2246 170 meg ESDI drive 40 meg tape backup (Alloy) plus extra memory cards. Have had no problems so far. George --- UUCP: ucqais.uc.edu!ggibeau BBS: (513) 721-7977 GT NODE: 006/005 US Snail-Dept of Biology ML 06, University of Cincinnati, Ohio 45221 ************************** I have a Z248 with an 80MB Segate st4096 installed. You may need to update your ROM's to use Zenith's drivers, however the ONTRACK software that came with the drive is capable of installing the drive. You just eat up some memory for the driver instead of using the ROM driver. If your DOS is not new enough, you'll have to partition the drive unless you use the ONTRACK software. D M Gambs, Oregon State Univerity, Corvallis, OR gambsd@prism.cs.orst.edu ************************** I haven't had to upgrade ours yet, but whenever I have technical questions like this, I send email to Jeff Easton, a Zenith Data Systems engineer who often monitors this newsgroup (easton@aucis.uucp). He's been a great help in the past! "Moby" Dick O'Connor ** DISCLAIMER: It would Washington Department of Fisheries ** surprise me if the Olympia, Washington 98504 ** rest of the Department Internet Mail: djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu ** agreed with any of this! ************************** Consider yourself heard from. I have the 6MHz equivalent of the same machine, called the Z-241. I am running a Seagate ST-4096 80 MB drive and an ST-4032 (?) 30 MB drive (both full-height). Both are working just dandy. The 4096 is drive type 35, I think (I'm taking that from memory). I'm not using any special driver s/w, though Seagate provides a nifty driver for > 32 MB partitions, etc. I used the standard prep, part, etc. utilities. Make sure you have a twisted cable. Your repair people are superstitious. The Zeniths have proved to be very reliable among people I know. I am *very* pleased with mine. I wouldn't trade it for an IBM AT or any clone. You may need to get a newer BIOS ROM set, if you don't have all of the drive types in your current SETUP menu. (Hit CTRL-ALT-INS to get to the h/w monitor. The ROM version will appear: something like "MFM-200 monitor, version 1.6". Write down the version. Then enter "setup" to get to the setup menu. Boy, is it nice having the diags built-in.) I updated the ROMs to get protected-mode support. The current version is 2.2 or higher; it has full protected-mode support for OS/2, UNIX/XENIX, and protected-mode DOS products like Informix. It also has 3.5" drive support. New ROMs can be ordered from the factory parts center at (616) 982-3571. Part numbers are 444-423-7 and 444-424-7; price is $28. -- Alan S. Denney @ Informix Software, Inc. ************************** We are using one as a Netserver with two drives one a 120MB and the other a 20MB. We use a different controller board with the software that came with it and everything works fine. Another possibility that you might want to try is updating your ROM's on the mother board. I believe the most recent version is 7.x. These modify the possible parameters on the <ctrl>-<alt>-<ins> setup from the monitor. -- / Jan Genemans | USENET: Jan.Genemans@Dartmouth.edu \ / ADP | UUCP: ...!dartvax!mac.dartmouth.edu!Jan.Genemans \ \ U.S.M.M.A. +---------+------------------------------------------/ \ Kings Point, NY 11024 | "Live long and prosper" -Spock / ************************** From: wheaton!jdouglas@obdient.chi.il.us (John Douglass) I have tried to install a Seagate 4096 80-meg hard drive on both a Zenith 200 series PC and a Zenith Workstation (386). I got all sorts of sporadic errors. Zenith didn't know how to fix it, so I called Seagate. Apparently they've had trouble before, because they immediately knew what to do. It involves moving a couple of jumpers and adding an additional one. The disk works like a charm now. If the jumper configurations might help you, let me know. I can fax you a diagram of the jumpers, or mail one to you. ************************** From: dsachg1!zdb1526@dsac.dla.mil (Kelly Pearce) We currently have 2 Zenith 248's, both have 2 ea. 120 meg Newbury ZD-1200 hard drives installed in them running DOS 3.1. The drives came with DISK MANAGER v3.30 installation software and drivers from ONTRACK Computer Systems Inc. The 1st disk in each machine is has a small DOS bootable partition (about 1 meg, DRIVE C:), the rest of the disk (DRIVE E:) is one partition (about 18 meg). The second disk (DRIVE F:) is one complete partition (about 19.5 meg). I don't know why it skips DRIVE D: so don't ask. We originally purchased these for a LAN Server running Venix. This was successfull but to slow and small to meet our needs so we converted them to DOS machines. The DISK MANAGER software works real well and allows for varying partition allocations, as desired. These have been running for about a year now without any problems. Very fast disk access (can't remember figures now), but drives are noisy enough that I would not want one on my desk all day. We purchased these drives through the Air Force Zenith Contract which has now expired so I don't know where they are available for purchase. I do seem to recall a netnews article a while back that said Newbury was pulling out of the U.S. (NOT OUT OF BUSINESS!), they are an English company. Here is their address: Newbury Data Recording Ltd. Hawthorne Road, Staines Middlesex, TW18 3BJ, England Telephone: (0784) 61500 TELEX: 8951969 FAX: (0784) 61071 Newbury Data Inc. 6 New England Executive Pard, Suite 400 Burlington, Mass. 01803 Telephone: (617)273-2161 Oh, these are INTERNAL full height drives. Hope this helps some. **************************