DEC Pro380 disk drives

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Re: DEC Pro380 disk drives
>   From: Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com>
>   Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 17:56:02 +0100
>     To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>On 08/05/2007 15:53, Roger Ivie wrote:
>> On Mon, 7 May 2007, Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
>>> Can the drives be formatted on a VAXstation 2000 and moved to a PRO ?
>>> (like you can do from a VS2000 to a PDP-11 (with RQDX3 ?))
>> 
>> I doubt it.
>> 
>> Folks have been talking about formatting on an RQDX1. The RQDX1 uses a
>> different format than that used by the RQDX2 and the VS2000. You can't
>> format a disk on an RQDX1 and use it in an RQDX2.
>> 
>> The RQDX2 was built around a single-chip disk controller, SMC's HDC9224.
>> The same controller was used in the VS2000. The RQDX1 had a hand-crafted
>> disk controller that used a slightly different format. Among other
>> things, an RQDX1 can stuff 18 sectors on a track whereas the RQDX2,
>> VS2000, and PCs for that matter can only do 17.
>
>That's incorrect; I suspect you're thinking of the RQDX3.  The RQDX2 is 
>just a modified RQDX1, and it definitely uses the same controller.  They 
>both put 18 sectors per track, and use the same format.  You can take a 
>disk formatted on an RQDX1 and connect it to an RQDX2, though in some 
>cases the RQDX2 will alter some values on the disk and then it won't be 
>recognised properly if you move it back to the RQDX1 (depending on the 
>level of firmware on the two controllers).
>
>The RQDX3 definitely *is* different, and you have to reformat hard 
>drives for that (and AFAIR *that's* the same format as VS2000).

Pete You have it correct 100%.  

The RQDX1/2 are the same board and mostly interchageable depending on
firmware rev.  It's a Quad width board.

RQDX3 is a smaller board (dual VS quad) and is fully compatable format
wise with VS2000.

Allison



>-- 
>
>Pete						Peter Turnbull
>						Network Manager
>						University of York