Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
On 23/08/15 17:42, Nick Rout wrote: On Sat, Aug 22, 2015 at 8:35 PM, Peter Simmonds peter.a.simmo...@gmail.com mailto:peter.a.simmo...@gmail.com wrote: Hi All, Does it have a reel to reel tape, or punched paper tape storage device by any chance? Punched paper tape brings back memories of school. Youth! -- Steve Holdoway BSc(Hons) MIITP http://www.greengecko.co.nz Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/steveholdoway Skype: sholdowa ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
Hi All, Does it have a reel to reel tape, or punched paper tape storage device by any chance? Maybe components of the system would have value rather than the whole? From an electronics perspective, a paper tape reader would be far more interesting than a board full of 74LS logic devices. I was lucky enough to read a book on how the old CRT/Electrostatic memory system worked, and possibly the only one in NZ who can tell of how the term Bug originated, thanks to having access to the right info! Anyway, the point I make is that there are probably various parts of the hardware that are worth retaining for study purposes, rather than keeping the whole lot. Cheers, Peter On 18/08/2015 21:50, Peter Glassenbury wrote: What DEC hardware was it ? We used to have a Vax 11/750 running Ultrix and then 4.3 BSD in the department Of interest to see one saved if I can find one. Still have the source code and maybe the tapes. Ferrymead doesn't save computers -- not old enough. The old computer group out there is long defunct.We had a full museum worth of PC's, minis and a *lot* of other computing memorabilia that we couldn't store any more. (Earthquake repairs). Ferrymead, Canterbury and Otago Museum didn't want it (Otago had most anyway and only really wanted local). I could find no other museum I found in the South island. In the end it was split between the Yaldhurst Museum and an ex Data General Engineer (Brendan McNeill) that was looking to start a local computing museum Peter Glassenbury Computer Science and Software Engineering University of Canterbury. crig...@criggie.org.nz wrote: Not really old or rare enough to be in a museum, although Pleasent Point Railway Museum might be interested, whereas Ferrymead is quite space-constrained. On 17/08/15 23:25, Chris Hellyar wrote: Does it have to be PC/i386 stuff? I'll be helping a firm pull out some old DEC hardware next month.. Serious big-iron they are going to have to pay to get taken away if you're really keen. It's not been powered on since about 1990, and you'll need a truck. :-) On 17/08/15 18:57, Peter Simmonds wrote: Hi Chris Others, I know what it's like. Would you mind keeping an eye out for exotic hardware, before it goes to molten media? They tend not to know much about what they are scrapping. ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
On Sat, Aug 22, 2015 at 8:35 PM, Peter Simmonds peter.a.simmo...@gmail.com wrote: Hi All, Does it have a reel to reel tape, or punched paper tape storage device by any chance? Punched paper tape brings back memories of school. ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
What DEC hardware was it ? We used to have a Vax 11/750 running Ultrix and then 4.3 BSD in the department Of interest to see one saved if I can find one. Still have the source code and maybe the tapes. Ferrymead doesn't save computers -- not old enough. The old computer group out there is long defunct.We had a full museum worth of PC's, minis and a *lot* of other computing memorabilia that we couldn't store any more. (Earthquake repairs). Ferrymead, Canterbury and Otago Museum didn't want it (Otago had most anyway and only really wanted local). I could find no other museum I found in the South island. In the end it was split between the Yaldhurst Museum and an ex Data General Engineer (Brendan McNeill) that was looking to start a local computing museum Peter Glassenbury Computer Science and Software Engineering University of Canterbury. crig...@criggie.org.nz wrote: Not really old or rare enough to be in a museum, although Pleasent Point Railway Museum might be interested, whereas Ferrymead is quite space-constrained. On 17/08/15 23:25, Chris Hellyar wrote: Does it have to be PC/i386 stuff? I'll be helping a firm pull out some old DEC hardware next month.. Serious big-iron they are going to have to pay to get taken away if you're really keen. It's not been powered on since about 1990, and you'll need a truck. :-) On 17/08/15 18:57, Peter Simmonds wrote: Hi Chris Others, I know what it's like. Would you mind keeping an eye out for exotic hardware, before it goes to molten media? They tend not to know much about what they are scrapping. ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
Hi-ho, I'm not sure of the model yet, at this stage all I know is that it's 6 cabinets with digital on some of them. That means it's not a minivax but other than that I'm in a hold loop waiting for a date next month to go and take a look. :-) I worked on a PDP11 micro that was failing with some obscure file system error in 1991 or so. Very surreal experience as I was told it was a Xenix 386 machine by one of the other techs where I was working which I had a working knowledge of, just! After a long phone conversation with DEC I managed to get a prompt on one of the terminals but it wasn't through skill, more a great deal of good luck and random connector wiggling from memory. :D On 18/08/15 21:50, Peter Glassenbury wrote: What DEC hardware was it ? We used to have a Vax 11/750 running Ultrix and then 4.3 BSD in the department Of interest to see one saved if I can find one. Still have the source code and maybe the tapes. Ferrymead doesn't save computers -- not old enough. The old computer group out there is long defunct.We had a full museum worth of PC's, minis and a *lot* of other computing memorabilia that we couldn't store any more. (Earthquake repairs). Ferrymead, Canterbury and Otago Museum didn't want it (Otago had most anyway and only really wanted local). I could find no other museum I found in the South island. In the end it was split between the Yaldhurst Museum and an ex Data General Engineer (Brendan McNeill) that was looking to start a local computing museum Peter Glassenbury Computer Science and Software Engineering University of Canterbury. crig...@criggie.org.nz wrote: Not really old or rare enough to be in a museum, although Pleasent Point Railway Museum might be interested, whereas Ferrymead is quite space-constrained. ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
On 18 August 2015 at 22:20, Chris Hellyar ch...@trash.co.nz wrote: Xenix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix Really? Or same name different thing? -- Kent KENTNL - https://metacpan.org/author/KENTNL ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
That's the one... Microsoft's long forgotten Unix. :-) We had quite a few customers using it on Altos 386 and IBM PS2/80 hardware back in the day, and the customer with the VAX was in our system as having a model 80.. So off I went with my 3.5 set of Xenix disks and a smile.. Turned out to be my first Vax encounter. :-) On 18/08/15 22:24, Kent Fredric wrote: On 18 August 2015 at 22:20, Chris Hellyar ch...@trash.co.nz wrote: Xenix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix Really? Or same name different thing? ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
Does it have to be PC/i386 stuff? I'll be helping a firm pull out some old DEC hardware next month.. Serious big-iron they are going to have to pay to get taken away if you're really keen. It's not been powered on since about 1990, and you'll need a truck. :-) On 17/08/15 18:57, Peter Simmonds wrote: Hi Chris Others, I know what it's like. Would you mind keeping an eye out for exotic hardware, before it goes to molten media? They tend not to know much about what they are scrapping. ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
On Mon 17 Aug 2015 20:07:20 NZST +1200, criggie wrote: With all respect to Molten Media, if anyone's giving away drives do make sure they're wiped first, with something like dban rather than a casual wipe in $OS. dban? dd is as good as it gets. Paranoia is a good thing. Ha. Just came from a Christchurch Robotics meeting. They all laugh about privacy, and the power companies collecting power use data from everyone with at least 30min resolution. What problem. Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann http://volker.top.geek.nz/ Please do not CC list postings to me. ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
scrub does it for me, not heard of dban before, will 'ave to have a look... Anyway, spare drives I have, first in first served: PATA: 1x WD400, 40G 2x Maxtor 20.4Gb (20G? is that even a thing? :) ) 1x Hitachi Deskstar 82.3Gb SATA: (Turns out two were not as old as the others!) 1x Hitachi 80G 1x WD400 40G They will be scrubbed before I bring them into town, which might take a day or three as I'll leave them running on a USB adaptor... Cheers, Chris H. On 17/08/15 20:07, criggie wrote: On 17/08/15 12:00, linux-users-requ...@lists.canterbury.ac.nz wrote: I go through a cylic thing where I collect parts from upgrades/repairs for customers and think 'that'll come in handy' and then after a few months realise I've collected a pile of junk that I drop off at Molten Media.. I thought I'd offer the drives up for free here first as I know there are some tinkerers on the list... With all respect to Molten Media, if anyone's giving away drives do make sure they're wiped first, with something like dban rather than a casual wipe in $OS. Paranoia is a good thing. ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
I have an old compac rack server sitting in the garage dual power supply one cpu though don't know the specs but it is old On 17 August 2015 at 18:57, Peter Simmonds peter.a.simmo...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Chris Others, I know what it's like. Would you mind keeping an eye out for exotic hardware, before it goes to molten media? They tend not to know much about what they are scrapping. As an example, I recently pulled an ordinary looking ISA card from an absolutely shagged old 386. This card was the basis for downloading data from a portable ECG monitor (as used in ambulances) into a computer. Without it the heartbeat waveform was only 8 pixels high on the LCD screen the units have. Would have otherwise taken months to reverse-engineer the communication these devices were using. Now I can just buy a PC104 motherboard from ebay, install the operating system and hard-wire the card straight on to it! Do let me (us?) know if anything exotic turns up, as the hardware is needed to create drivers, which in turn could possibly end up in the linux kernal! Cheers, Peter On 17/08/2015 11:55, Chris Hellyar wrote: Hi Peter, They are fine for legacy machines, but I've got a lot of spare junk and I want the space back. :-) I go through a cylic thing where I collect parts from upgrades/repairs for customers and think 'that'll come in handy' and then after a few months realise I've collected a pile of junk that I drop off at Molten Media.. I thought I'd offer the drives up for free here first as I know there are some tinkerers on the list... I'll go through em tonight and reply with a list of the sizes.. There were some 40's and at least one 80 in there, and I think a 100 but I wasn't paying that much attention to be honest... If it wasn't 400G+ it went on the 'out' pile... Cheers, Chris H. -Original Message- From: Peter Simmonds peter.a.simmo...@gmail.com peter.a.simmo...@gmail.com Hi Chris Others, I think these may be useful when formatted with FAT32 and maybe on a USB2 to PATA adapter. I have tried on many occasions to get various livecd distributions to work on various hard drives. They always seem to require FAT32, and frequently fail due to some other factor (I'm guessing the USB-PATA bridge). Perhaps the lower CHS count on these drives may improve compatibility? Have seen W98SE2 running on an 80Gb drive myself. I also suspect there is some extension to FAT32 used by default at least in windoze that would seem to create incompatibilities with creating bootable live CD distros. Hopefully someone else on the mailing list will be able to give better advice... In any case, I could do with a few of these myself, to upgrade some legacy systems. Cheers, Peter ___ Linux-users mailing listlinux-us...@lists.canterbury.ac.nzhttp://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users -- Regards Bevan Linux Aficionado and Arch Linux fanboy In a world without fences and walls, who needs Gates and Windows? ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
Hi Chris Others, I know what it's like. Would you mind keeping an eye out for exotic hardware, before it goes to molten media? They tend not to know much about what they are scrapping. As an example, I recently pulled an ordinary looking ISA card from an absolutely shagged old 386. This card was the basis for downloading data from a portable ECG monitor (as used in ambulances) into a computer. Without it the heartbeat waveform was only 8 pixels high on the LCD screen the units have. Would have otherwise taken months to reverse-engineer the communication these devices were using. Now I can just buy a PC104 motherboard from ebay, install the operating system and hard-wire the card straight on to it! Do let me (us?) know if anything exotic turns up, as the hardware is needed to create drivers, which in turn could possibly end up in the linux kernal! Cheers, Peter On 17/08/2015 11:55, Chris Hellyar wrote: Hi Peter, They are fine for legacy machines, but I've got a lot of spare junk and I want the space back. :-) I go through a cylic thing where I collect parts from upgrades/repairs for customers and think 'that'll come in handy' and then after a few months realise I've collected a pile of junk that I drop off at Molten Media.. I thought I'd offer the drives up for free here first as I know there are some tinkerers on the list... I'll go through em tonight and reply with a list of the sizes.. There were some 40's and at least one 80 in there, and I think a 100 but I wasn't paying that much attention to be honest... If it wasn't 400G+ it went on the 'out' pile... Cheers, Chris H. -Original Message- From: Peter Simmonds peter.a.simmo...@gmail.com Hi Chris Others, I think these may be useful when formatted with FAT32 and maybe on a USB2 to PATA adapter. I have tried on many occasions to get various livecd distributions to work on various hard drives. They always seem to require FAT32, and frequently fail due to some other factor (I'm guessing the USB-PATA bridge). Perhaps the lower CHS count on these drives may improve compatibility? Have seen W98SE2 running on an 80Gb drive myself. I also suspect there is some extension to FAT32 used by default at least in windoze that would seem to create incompatibilities with creating bootable live CD distros. Hopefully someone else on the mailing list will be able to give better advice... In any case, I could do with a few of these myself, to upgrade some legacy systems. Cheers, Peter ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
On 17/08/15 20:11, linux-users-requ...@lists.canterbury.ac.nz wrote: I have an old compac rack server sitting in the garage dual power supply one cpu though don't know the specs but it is old Given Compaq stopped making servers at least 15 years ago, that box will be a p3 xeon with maybe a couple hundred MB of ram, if it Practically, no use. Not really old or rare enough to be in a museum, although Pleasent Point Railway Museum might be interested, whereas Ferrymead is quite space-constrained. And it'll likely use a heap more power than any modern box, if you wanted to run it as a quirky device. So its really only useful as art, or perhaps a bookend, or a leg for a workbench. Sorry. -- Criggie http://criggie.org.nz/ ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: [Linux-users] PATA drives - 80/40G
Hi Chris Others, I think these may be useful when formatted with FAT32 and maybe on a USB2 to PATA adapter. I have tried on many occasions to get various livecd distributions to work on various hard drives. They always seem to require FAT32, and frequently fail due to some other factor (I'm guessing the USB-PATA bridge). Perhaps the lower CHS count on these drives may improve compatibility? Have seen W98SE2 running on an 80Gb drive myself. I also suspect there is some extension to FAT32 used by default at least in windoze that would seem to create incompatibilities with creating bootable live CD distros. Hopefully someone else on the mailing list will be able to give better advice... In any case, I could do with a few of these myself, to upgrade some legacy systems. Cheers, Peter On 16/08/2015 12:35, Chris Hellyar wrote: Anyone got an use for small (by current standards) Parallel ATA drives? 3.5 jobs.. If anyone's interested I'll get a list of em sorted, I just went through the pile-o-drives and saw some a few and haven't done anything with em yet. ;-) Cheers, Chris H. ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users ___ Linux-users mailing list Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
