Well, formatting an RD53 seems to be working. And the rev 4 ROMs are
much nicer than the rev 3 in terms of talking to you.
Unit Cylinders Drive Name
0 1024 RD53
1 RX33 Diskette (FORMATABLE)
MSCP Controller Model: 19
Microcode Version: 4
Formatting of Drive 0 Begun.
------------ FORMAT PROGRESS REPORT -------------
1 minute into format ---- Formatting tracks, LBN # 28816
2 minutes into format ---- Formatting tracks, LBN # 57682
3 minutes into format ---- Formatting tracks, LBN # 86514
4 minutes into format ---- Formatting tracks, LBN # 115363
5 minutes into format ---- Reading defect list
6 minutes into format ---- Replacing defect # 3 on head # 0
7 minutes into format ---- Replacing defect # 7 on head # 0
8 minutes into format ---- Replacing defect # 1 on head # 1
9 minutes into format ---- Reading defect list
10 minutes into format ---- Replacing defect # 1 on head # 7
11 minutes into format ---- Third check pass, writing LBN # 31399
12 minutes into format ---- Third check pass, writing LBN # 62815
13 minutes into format ---- Third check pass, writing LBN # 93959
14 minutes into format ---- Third check pass, writing LBN # 125239
15 minutes into format ---- Third check pass, reading LBN # 17935
16 minutes into format ---- Third check pass, reading LBN # 49487
17 minutes into format ---- Third check pass, reading LBN # 80495
18 minutes into format ---- Third check pass, reading LBN # 104336
19 minutes into format ---- Third check pass, reading LBN # 126055
Format Completed.
00012 Rev LBNs
00000 Bad RBNs
00000 Bad DBNs
00000 Bad XBNs
00001 retired
FCT used successfully.
Drive 0 has been formatted successfully.
ZRQC EOP 1
0 TOTAL ERRS
On 2/3/2023 1:20 PM, David Gesswein via cctalk wrote:
On Fri, Feb 03, 2023 at 12:09:27PM -0500, Chris Zach wrote:
Question: Can Dave G's board be used to low level format an RD54? Can it
test physical disk for errors (wasn't sure)
The read test you did should have told you if there were sectors with errors.
Using my tools to low level format is only sort of possible. DEC got overly
creative with their disk format so some sectors are formmatted differently for
controller use. I've haven't written code to be able to reproduce that.
If you have an image of a good disk mfm_write can write that to another drive.
Somewhat fiddly. Problem with that is it will not have the bad sectors on
the new drive properly mapped out so you will get read errors. If there is
a tool you can run to test the disk and mark new bad sectors that should fix
that problem.
I do have an RD54 image that can be used with mfm_write. Search in page for RD54
http://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/status.shtml
