VAXStation 4000/90 Hard drive options

[Dan Williams]

Mark Wickens wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> A quick question for the VAXen experts out there. Help would very much be 
> appreciated.
> 
> I'd like to know what the maximum drive size is that I can attach to my VAX. 
> I've never been given a definitive answer, but many people appear to have had 
> success with drives larger than those 'officially' declared supported. I will 
> be running OpenVMS.
> 
> In particular, I'm wondering whether a Seagate ST39173N which is a 9.1GB 50 
> pin device will work. There are also several 4.3/4.5GB 50 pin models 
> available, as well as a huge number of 68 and 80 pin devices that could be 
> connected via adapters.
> 
> I bought a Fujitsu 9.1GB 80 pin SCA drive and attempted to connect this to the 
> VAX via an 80 - 50 pin converted but the drive was not recognised properly by 
> either the boot rom or OpenVMS.
> 
> Thanks for the help,
> 
> Mark.

I've got 2x18gb drives internally on mine. They both work fine one boots 
vms and the other netbsd. I did have trouble with a couple of drives 
with a 80-50 pin convertor, but I did use one seagate 9gb drive which 
worked for a while with a convertor.

Dan