hue@island.uu.net (Johnathan Hue) (06/14/90)
I'm going to need a SCSI 130mm erasable magneto-optical disk drive here soon, and I'm hoping someone out there might be able to answer a few questions. What I am going to do is attach the drive to a SPARCstation 1+ (running 4.0.3) and write data on it, then move the media to a non-UNIX box to read it. I won't be putting a file system on the disk, but rather accessing it through the block or raw disk interface and writing out files in the format required by the other machine. 1) Does anyone have a recommendation for a drive manufacturer? So far I know of Sony, Maxtor, and Ricoh. 2) Does anyone have a recommendation for a drive integrator? So far I know of Artecon, Pinnacle, Introl, Bridgeway, and Delta. 3) Does anyone have a recommendation for a vendor? I've looked in Sun Observer and there are dozens of distributors: Artecon, R-Squared, Workstations Plus, Introl, Falcon, Andataco, Western Scientific, Acropolis, to name a few. 4) Most important: The machine I am moving the data to requires the media's physical format to be ISO format. My understanding is that with most drives, the default is to format to ISO format, and the optional formats can only be used after issuing a MODE SELECT command specifying the optional format, and then issuing a FORMAT UNIT command. So it would appear that as long as the format program doesn't change the mode select parameters, it will get formatted to ISO format. Does the formatting software that comes with these drives leave this alone and format the drive as ISO? Any help would be greatly appreciated. WARNING: Use of Waddell sails leads to increased windsurfing addiction. Keep out of reach during working hours. Jonathan Hue Island Graphics Corp. uunet!island!hue hue@island.uu.net
rode@uniol.UUCP (Dirk Rode) (06/15/90)
Hello, I want to say something about your question. We have 2 drives, one Ricoh drive (RO-5030E) and one Sony Drive (SMO-C501-00) and we want to use both for transporting data from a PDP11-84 with RT11 to a Interactive UNIX System (386). Also we want to use the drives for a Mac IIx. We have the following problems: The Ricoh drive (delivered by Delta Computers) cannot format a MO-Disk. This is a very big problem for us, because of this we cannot write any data on this drive under the PDP11 and we only can use this drive for storing up data just as on a magnetic tape. If you use other cartridges then the original Cartrigdes (very exspensive), you only see the error message "incompatible cartridge". On the Sony drive (delivered by K&S) we can format MO-Disks. So it is possible to write a UNIX File System on it, you can also use the PDP11 or an Atari ST File System on a Disk. No Problems. But you cannot read a Disk for a Ricoh Drive because you get a "Medium Format Corrupted" error message. But with a little trick you can format a Ricoh disk, only by using the embadded SCSI Controller, but not directly under UNIX. Now we want to change a new cartridge for the use with an Mac II. But they use a different format on the MO and you cannot Format a Disk under Mac OS. I'm using an Atari ST with a ICD Host Adapter for my experiences, and I thing the Sony drive is much better than the Ricoh drive (no Problems with the Sony drive from K&S, only changing the SCSI Address, connecting - running - done.) If you want mor information about my Problems with MO-Drives (I only know the Ricoh and the Sony drive) write me. If you had other problems and you know what to do - please write me too. mfG Diro -- * Dirk Rode * UUCP: ...!unido!uniol!rode * * Zwischenahner Str. 64 * Bitnet: 077481@Doluni1.Bitnet * * 2910 Howiek * Nickname: Waldi * * Arbeitsgruppe Rechnerbetrieb Informatik der * * Universitaet Oldenburg (FB 10 - ARBI) *