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Alphastation 200 - replace 50 pin scsi drive with 80 pin?

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Chuck Wagner

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Aug 31, 2020, 5:19:45 PM8/31/20
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So I've got an Alphastation 200 that I haven't turned on in about 20 years that won't boot, and from time to time after a reset the hard drive disappears.

Anyone know if an 80 pin drive like a DEC DS-RZ2CA-LA will work with a 50 pin to 80 pin adapter board?

Thanks - Chuck

Grant Taylor

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Sep 1, 2020, 10:18:28 AM9/1/20
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On 8/31/20 3:19 PM, Chuck Wagner wrote:
> Anyone know if an 80 pin drive like a DEC DS-RZ2CA-LA will work with
> a 50 pin to 80 pin adapter board?

I've run into a similar problem with older SUNs.

Yes, I've gotten a 50-pin SCSI-I / SCSI-II to 80-pin SCA adapter and
/some/ /specific/ 80-pin SCA drives to work.

The crux of the matter seems to be that SCSI-I / SCSI-II is /narrow/ and
SCA drives can be /narrow/ and / or /wide/. So you must find an 80-pin
SCA drive that supports /narrow/ operations.

Beyond that, it's a game of what will physically fit in the space that
you have.

> Thanks - Chuck

You're welcome, and good luck.



--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

Stephen Hoffman

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Sep 2, 2020, 3:56:59 PM9/2/20
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Try it. There was wide-hostile SCSI gear around back then, which was
later replaced with wide-friendly gear.
The wide-hostile gear didn't ignore the use of the fourth addressing
pin. The wide-friendly gear did.
Or cluster with and boot from an OpenVMS server running on something
newer, and run the AlphaStation 200 system diskless.


--
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

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