anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) (06/10/91)
A couple weeks ago I ask for the collective wisdom on
removing the 330MB drive from my cube, and moving it to a
new DOS machine I'm considering, replacing it with a new,
larger drive for the NeXT.
Helpful information, as always, arrived. It is summarized
below for interested parties. And thanks to those who
responded.
I've since discovered that my drive is a Maxtor XT8380S
(astonishingly quiet drive, btw), formatted with 1024
bytes/block. These puppies are not free, so I would like to
buy the PC w/o drive or controller and put this thing in
there.
One of my questions was about low-level formatting, since
PCs like 512 bytes/sector and NeXT likes 1024 bytes/sector,
although it can also accept 512.
It seems to depend on the manufacturer, but low-level
formatting of some of these drives *in the PC* is beyond the
capabilities of most vendor-supplied software. It appears
that one must reformat from 1024 to 512 before removing the
drive from the NeXT. I'm not sure I have the definitive
answer to this part yet.
Wrt to the new drive, I asked about Fujitsu drives formatted
at 512 and at 1024, and it appears that Fujitsu's common
designator suffix SA means 512 and SB means 1024.
=====
From: izumi@mindseye.berkeley.edu
I don't know if any software will change 1024 bytes/sector
to 512 bytes/sector, but I know of one way.
Rory Bolt (Author of formatter for Fujitsu, at archive's
1.0-release/binaries/formatter_1.2.tar.Z) will give you
sources to his formatter if you register for $15. and send
in a floppy.
Although, by default, it will only change *to* 1024
bytes/sector from other configuration, I bet you can modify
sources to go reverse (from 1024 to 512).
=====
From: Jim Wright <jwright@cfht.hawaii.edu>
The Fujitsu in my cube uses 512 byte sectors. I believe
Fujitsu uses the suffix SA to mean 512 byte sectors and SB
for 1024. No problem with 512 or 1024 byte sectors.
I haven't tried this my self, but there should be zillions
of utilities on the PC that will do this. Roy Neese's stuff
earns consistently high praise for a free PC SCSI tool.
=====
From: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Fujitsu "SA" drives are formatted at 512 bytes/sector; "SB"
drives are formatted at 1024 bytes/sector. The hardware is
identical (as should the prices be). Either will work, but
the 1024 version will give you more storage capacity and
higher performance. You'll save yourself a lot of grief by
ordering an SB drive... don't count on the third-party
reformatters to do the right thing.
=====
<> Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
<> -- Francis Bacon, 1624
--
Jess Anderson <> Madison Academic Computing Center <> University of Wisconsin
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