Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!yendor.UUCP!stefan
From: stefan@yendor.UUCP (Stefan Loesch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k
Subject: Re:  SCSI Disks on Delta 3000s
Message-ID: <13244@mcdphx.phx.mcd.mot.com>
Date: 20 Jul 90 17:23:17 GMT
References: <3098@lll-lcc.UUCP>
Sender: listen@mcdphx.phx.mcd.mot.com
Reply-To: stefan@yendor.UUCP (Stefan Loesch)
Organization: Motorola Microcomputer Division, Tempe, Az.
Lines: 54

In article <3098@lll-lcc.UUCP> rzh@lll-lcc.UUCP (Roger Hanscom) writes:
>
>In <41276@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com> heiby@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com (Ron Heiby)
>writes:
>
>>The most common experience that our customers seem to have when
>>they try to save a few bucks by integrating their own disk drive
>>is that they are surprised by how much work it *really* would have
>>saved if they had just bought a drive from us.  All the tools are
>
>[flame on]
>If "all the tools are there to integrate foreign drives into the system",
>then integrating foreign drive into the system shouldn't be a problem.
>This "buy it from us at 2x, 3x, 10x .... the market price because it's
>easier" attitude is too common with vendors (particularly the three letter
>ones..ahem).  IMHO, if a customer wants to buy from the vendor (for what-
>ever reason...easier, h/w maint,, less paperwork,....etc.) fine, but a
>vendor should also provide whatever it takes to make their h/w work with
>3rd party stuff in the market.  I can see them not making it terribly
>easy, but they shouldn't make it hard either.  "The easy way out" may not
>be an option for lots of folks!
>[flame off]

This are just two sides of coin, each with it's own merrit.
Ron is talking from a commercial customers point of view (that's what he
deals with) whereas Roger takes the stance of some private person or
student at a college (yes, those also are customers, even if big companies
more often than not seem to forget that).

To get back to the technical side:
	It MAY be possible. Depends how close to the standard the drive is.
	I've seen drives that didn't even require a new dskdefs file,
	and I've seen some that required firmware changes.
	If firmware changes are necessary you're completely out of luck.
	My advice is, if you've a drive lying around anyway and some time,
	give it a try. If you have to buy a drive make sure  you can 
	give it back if it doesn't work (more likely than not).

	Start out by hooking the drive up, and see if it responds to
	BUG commands. If it does, create a new dskdefs file
	(ddefs -n NEWNAME) to format the drive (dinit -f NEWNAME RAWDEVICE)
	and to create filesystems (sledit RAWDEVICE).
	A good practice after formating also is to try a complete read
	of your drive (dd if=RAWDEVICE of=/dev/null bs=64k). I often catch
	(and subsequently lockout with dinit -n NEWNAME RAWDEVICE)
	additional bad spots which the formatting didn't get.

	WARNING ! If you don't know EXACTELY what you're doing, leave your
	fingers off. You may crash your system (with all software gone!)
	Even if you know what you're doing, make a complete backup before
	you start, it's just to easy to destroy something.

Stefan
	stefan@phx.mcd.mot.com