Subject: Re: DEC RC25 Drives

From: "John A. Dundas III" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon Mar 3 12:44:03 2003

Back in the VAX 11/725 days I used to have several such systems.  All were
quite reliable, evidently contrary to experience on the list.

At 10:29 AM -0800 2/19/03, Ethan Dicks wrote:
>You will not be able to spin it up without the removable cartridge.

Is this strictly true?  My very vague memory recalled that it was possible,
though the removable door had to remain closed while the internal drive was
spun up.

I recently acquired one [and the controller] for my 11/73.  I do have one
and only one pack.  This pack does have data that I would like to
reacquire, therefore I am unwilling to put it in the drive until I have
some way of proving the drive clean and functional.  [Can't accept crashing
the removable.]  I have not been able to spin up the disk so far, thus
lending evidence to Ethan's assertion above.

John

---

From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon Mar 3 22:36:01 2003

--- "John A. Dundas III" <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Is this strictly true?

That was my experience in 1987.  I used that fact to get the vendor to
ship me a (free) cartridge so I could spin up the drive and get the 11/725
working.

-ethan

---

From: "John A. Dundas III" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Mar 4 12:46:08 2003

After digging a bit more in the manual, indeed I find the confirming quote:

"NOTE: A disk cartridge must be installed to spin up and operate the disk
drive.  The fixed disk does not spin up and run without a removable
cartridge in place.  The spin-up cycle takes approximately 1 minute.  It
involves spinning the disk platters up to operating speed, cleaning the
internal air system, loading the read/write heads, and performing a
self-test."

Looks like I need to find an additional (possibly sacrificial) cartridge.
Any help?

Thanks,

John