[comp.sys.mac.hardware] Info on SyQuest SQ555 wanted

chem194@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (John Davis) (05/24/91)

I'm having difficulties with a Syquest SQ555 drive (hooked to a macintosh)
in that I've got two cartridges that have 'gone bad' (on insertion
I get a repeating pattern of 5 blinks on the red led, followed by one on 
the green led). I'm presuming this means the factory defect list on 
the cartridges in question has become scrambled - I've tried formatting
the cartridges using the provided formatting software, but it
seems unable to initialise a cart with this sort of damage).
 
Presumably there is a separate scsi command (besides the usual format 
command) that you can send to force a total low-level format (like
they've got to format them at the factory somehow!?) - I'd be interested
if anyone knows what it is (or of some other way to try resurrecting
the dead carts - writing off $400 worth of media isn't appealing).
 
(the drive itself is fine - I'm using it with a fresh cartridge with
no problems) 

-----------------------------------------------------------
| o      John Davis - CHEM194@csc.canterbury.ac.nz       o |
| o    (Depart)mental Programmer,Chemistry Department    o |
| o  University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand o |