On 01/06/2016 23:51, Swift Griggs wrote:
Does anyone have such a beast and can share a model # ? If they are cheap enough, I'd replace my current crapola 1X external "ace in the hole" CDROM with it. My hang-up has always been the block size issue.
Most Toshibas respond to the command, so pretty much anything later than an XM3401 - that's a 4x caddy drive with jumpers. XM3601 is also 4x but with tray instead of caddy, though it still has jumpers for the block size. I have both of those, and an XM3301 (2x) caddy drive.
O2s use XM5401 (4x), as does my Origin2000. I regularly use an XM5701 (12x) on one of my Indys, an XM6401 (32x) on another and I recently bought a Toshiba SD-M1401 ex-Sun DVD-ROM drive that is working happily on the Indy that used to have the XM5701. These are all jumperless for the block size.
SGI once had special firmware for some of the early supported Toshiba CDROM drives, but that was only for the benefit of booting a really ancient miniroot on 4Ds. Sun did the same thing. I believe (but have never tested) that changing one of the pads on standard Toshiba XM3401 (not SGI/Sun branded) enables the hack. It's in the SGI FAQ. I've never had any problem with random SCSI CDROMs, but all my SGIs are Indigos or later, and the few older Sparcstations I've had are happy with any firmware I tried.
I happen to like Toshibas, but I had an NEC Multispin (3x) that worked, and others swear by Plextor drives, and I believe Sun also used Hitachis.
-- Pete
