nachmias@cattell.psych.upenn.edu (Jacob Nachmias) (03/17/89)
I own a DEC Rainbow 100+ with a 5 Mb hard disk. I would like to upgrade to a 20 Mb hard disk. However, I do not have access to a low level format utility that will run on the Rainbow. Does anyone out there know where I can get one?
rl1b+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU ("Robert A. Locke") (03/19/89)
Jacob,
The BEST low-level format utility is called WUtil and was written
by Tony Camas. I understand that some noce fellow in Europe has taken
version 2.0 written by Tony and updated it to version 3.0 in order to
handle something or other that version 2.0 didn't have. Does anybody
have a copy of this? Could they upload, uuencode it, and send it to
me and then I will redistribute to whoever wants it...
One warning though about going from a 5 megabyte to a 20 megabyte
drive. Chances are, you are going to need a new to go from the
controller to the drive. If you have a dark gray one, you need to get
a really light colored one. The new revision can handle the higher
transfer rate of the data. You can tell that you are having problems
if you start getting random errors on your drive and random loss of
data. Lastly, the light colored ones have been known to fail also (I
had one that did).
You know, it's funny, the only thing to ever go wrong with my
machine was the damn hard drive cable.... Tells you something about
quality. I've had my machine for five years now....
--Rob Locke
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USAKushall.Henr@XEROX.COM (Edward) (03/20/89)
There is a PD format utility called WUTIL (WinchesterUTILity) this program is written by Tony Camas and is well supported. I used this utility to but an ST-251 (40 MB drive) WUTIL can format most hard drives that can be connected to the rainbow, the utility can also test the low level format and allows many partition options. If you decide on more than 4 partitions you will need a utility to replace the DEC menu as it supports only 4 partitions I don't recall the one I used but POLYPART rings a bell. WUTIL is available on many of the Rainbow FIDO nets, I got mine from theHhitchhikers Guide.
ERIK@MAX.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU ("Erik A. Abers") (03/21/89)
> Date: 20 Mar 89 08:15:46 EST (Monday) > From: Edward <Kushall.Henr@xerox.com> > Subject: Re: Low level format utility for the Rainbow 100 > To: info-dec-micro@andrew.cmu.edu > > [lines deleted] > > If you decide on more than 4 partitions you will need a utility to replace > the DEC menu as it supports only 4 partitions I don't recall the one I used > but POLYPART rings a bell. No other utility is needed, WUTIL will take care of that for you... My Rainbow has 6 boot partitions: 4 for MS-DOS, 1 for CP/M, and 1 for CCP/M. All this was done with WUTIL (and an old version at that). Even if you stick with 4 or less boot partitions, I'd prefer the WUTIL boot menu. > WUTIL is available on many of the Rainbow FIDO nets, I got mine from > theHhitchhikers Guide. I sent our list moderator, Rob Locke, a copy of the latest version (WUTIL, V3.11). He mentioned that he would distribute it on a request basis. He can be reached at <rl1b+@andrew.cmu.edu>. - Erik -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -- Erik A. Abers -- 501 North 36th Street; #167 -- University of Washington -- Seattle, WA 98103-8613; USA -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -> Address #1: Erik@Max.ACS.Washington.Edu -> From BITNET, the domain of -> Address #2: Erik@Blake.ACS.Washington.Edu ".ACS.Washington.Edu" can -> Address #3: Erik@UWaCDC.ACS.Washington.Edu be disregarded. -> Address #4: EA@Grace.CS.Washington.Edu -> Telephone: (206) 632-2775 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-