Hello, Chris
 
|I've got an old MPE/V Micro/3000 with a disc with some bad sectors
|on it... I'm seeing Sysfail #651s almost regularly (HP7945 drive)
|which the ol' manual says to do a DUMP and determine the bad sectors
|so they can be reassigned/spared/whatever.
 
In my experience, the 7945 (55 meg) drive is the most unreliable disc
drive HP ever tried to support on the 3000.  I've seen them dying like
flies at sites all over the country, and that was back when they were
relatively new.
 
The only good news is that the mechanism is not a proprietary drive by
HP.  [On the other hand, I expect that has a lot to do with the reliabilty
problem.]  A few years ago, Paul Edwards in Dallas, was using a 37 with a
string of 7945 drives which failed frequently.  He found a company which
would refurbish the drives at what he considered a reasonable cost.  I have
no idea how much that was or who the company was.  Maybe he can provide
some info if anyone knows how to contact him.  [The last time I heard, he
was still working for Bradmark.  Is that still true?]
 
|I can't recall ever having done a DUMP on the micro before (if I
|have, it's been MANY years), but >DU 4,7 seems to have locked up
|on me (channel 4 device 7 is the 7978). Assuming I can get a valid
|dump out of it, is the bad-sector stuff gonna be readable? I've
|used the dump analyzer on 5x/6x/70s but not on a Micro...
 
START and DUMP both should refer to the address of ldev 1.
Only LOAD refers to the address of the boot tape drive.
 
|If I *can't* get the dump to go, is there any other way to catch
|the bad sectors? [can't seem to find a sadutil tape, which isn't
|surprising since I've never used it on this box before - it's been
|humming along for about 5 years for me]
 
Replace the drive and reload?  :}  7933 and 7937 drives seem to be pretty
common on the used market these days.  How inexpensive are they?
--
[log in to unmask] (Jeff Woods at Unison Software) [PGP key available]
We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its
efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day
who don't know anything and can't read.  -- Mark Twain (1835-1910)