Formatter for 68000 XENIX Drives

[mikes at sir-alan.UUCP]

The standard Tandy XENIX formatter for the 16/6000 will handle a hard
drive with up to 1024 cylinders.  Unfortunately, I have a drive with
1,378 cylinders (Quantum 2080).  A company called "Microtime", I think,
published a version of the Tandy formatter for XENIX 1.3.5 that would
handle a full Quantum 2080.  Does anyone know whether (a) one can use
the 1.3.5 formatter with XENIX 3.x (I have not tried it, but everyone
says "No"); or (b) if a XENIX 3.x version can be purchased or (c) how
to modify the standard formatter to allow more cylinders.

If anyone is interested, I can report that the combination of a Tandy
16/1MB RAM/Quantum 2080 is a nice one; it runs the Byte benchmarks in
the same range of speeds as the 6000 with the 35MB 5 1/4" drive. There
are a number of dealers who are selling this drive now for between $550
and $1000; it simply replaces the 8MB drive in a 16 with an 8" HD.  The
only mod required is jumpering the Tandy write protect line from the
switch to pin 5 of the 20-pin data cable.

Michael L. Squires                       Office: 814-724-3360
Department of Political Science          Home: 814-337-5528
Allegheny College
Meadville, PA 16335
 
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