rbbb.rice%rand-relay@sri-unix.UUCP (06/30/83)
From: David.Chase <rbbb.rice@rand-relay> Here is our experience with the ra81 fco: It involves replacing the uda50 controller, 3 out of 4 boards in the drive itself, and changing the pack's format. The actual upgrade takes little time, but formatting the pack takes about an hour and a half. This is done using a new version of EVRLB (it introduces itself as "experimental"). The FE said to take the old tapes and scratch them, don't let them near the disk ever again, etc. Also, if you care about the information on the pack, then you might want to back it up first. This took us about two hours using VMS standalone backup with a Tu78 @ 6250 bpi. It used a full 3 reels of tape (this was the entire disk, because it was a physical backup). If you are a unix site w/o access to vms backup, then I'm not real sure what you do, but I don't think it will be fun. If you have no tape drive, then get one. Our FE said that they had once tried using a pack without reformatting it, and it had not worked at all. David Chase, Rice University
rws@mit-bold (Robert W. Scheifler) (11/13/84)
We've had two RA81s drop dead on us in the last two months. Not just a few bad blocks here and there, mind you, but sudden, total failure, resulting in loss of all the bits and requiring replacement of the HDA. And these were RA81s that had previously had all of their electronics (4 boards each) replaced to cure problems we had had earlier, which had resulted in the loss of an HDA. I have never heard of any comparable disasters with Eagles.