[comp.sys.dec] pro 350's

markw@remote.halcyon.wa.com (Mark Ward) (08/08/90)

I'm attempting to use a miniscribe 25mb drive with a pro 350.  The
miniscribe drive is either an 3825 or 2538 (I keep forgetting).  When
the system comes up, it displays the drive controller as being messed
up, then boots off floppy.  When I attempt to format the drive (with
rt11-xm), the system pukes up and says it can't format it... I would
assume I need a low level formatter for it...

-mark

SLSW2@cc.usu.edu (Roger Ivie) (08/10/90)

In article <15ikN2w162w@remote.halcyon.wa.com>, markw@remote.halcyon.wa.com (Mark Ward) writes:
> I'm attempting to use a miniscribe 25mb drive with a pro 350.  The
> miniscribe drive is either an 3825 or 2538 (I keep forgetting).  When
> the system comes up, it displays the drive controller as being messed
> up, then boots off floppy.  When I attempt to format the drive (with
> rt11-xm), the system pukes up and says it can't format it... I would
> assume I need a low level formatter for it...
> 

FORMAT.SAV under RT-11 is a low-level formatter, but the drive has to be
one that it recognizes. I know DW counts heads to determine the drive type,
and I assume FORMAT does something similar.

If the drive is really not formatted, you need to INSTALL DW before you can
format it; I seem to recall that FORMAT tells you this if you run it on an
unformatted drive.
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