[Info-vax] 4 beeps DEC RF31 disk

[David Wade]

On 24/11/2019 21:00, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 11/24/2019 2:10 PM, Diego Claeys wrote:
>> Hello guys,
>>
>> one of my DEC RF31 disk died today.
>> I was working on my vax 4000-200 and suddenly the disk stops spinning 
>> and the red light came up.
>> I shutdown the system, power it off and on and the defunct disk beeps 
>> 4 times without spinning up.
>>
>> Any idea what that could mean?
>>
>> regards.
>>

Probably its dead. If its not trying to spin could be caps on the 
controller board.

> 
> Could be electronic.  Could be mechanical.  Bearings and such were never 
> meant to last forever.
>  > Is that RF disk DSSI?  Been so long, I don't remember.  If so, that
> could be an issue.
>

Its DSSI. You should may able to talk to the disk and see what the 
problem is. I have seen the instructions somewhere but I can't remember 
where.


> If it's SCSI, or you can use SCSI, then start looking at the devices 
> that can take an SD card and present it as a SCSI disk.  Or other 
> similar devices.
> 
> People using old disks are going to lose them, sooner or later.
> 
DSSI are a problem as there is no readily available replacement. There 
are bridge boards but they are more expensive and rarer that DSSI disks. 
With SCSI and MFM there are emulators that allow SD cards to be connected.

Dave