Very Computer

I have an Iomega ZIP drive (it's a portable disk drive with removeable
100MB cartridges).  It has a SCSI port normally intended for PCs and Macs.
Does anyone have any idea how to use it to extract data from a Sun
workstation (specifically, a SPARCstation 10)?  I need to do a one-time
transfer of a lot of data from the Sun (which is running Sun Unix 4.1.3)
to my PC.  I already know how to handle the PC side.

My questions:

   1. If I just plug it into the Sun's SCSI port, should I be in business?
   2. If so, do I need to reformat the ZIP disk, and if so, how?  My Zip
      disks are preformatted for MS-DOS.
   3. Or is there a way to get Unix to read/write from an MS-DOS file
      system?  I can do this with floppies by mounting with the "-t pcfs"
      option; will this work with the Zip?
   4. If not, what's the best way to read Unix-formatted media on my
      MS-DOS PC?
   5. Has anyone done this already?
   6. Is there some easier way to transfer a few hundred megabytes to
      my PC?  Transferring by modem would take about four straight days.
      I don't have a tape drive on my PC, nor do I know anyone who does.

Thanks for your assistance.
--
"Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction?
Fiction, after all, has to make sense." -- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

|> I have an Iomega ZIP drive (it's a portable disk drive with removeable
|> 100MB cartridges).  It has a SCSI port normally intended for PCs and Macs.
|> Does anyone have any idea how to use it to extract data from a Sun
|> workstation (specifically, a SPARCstation 10)?

I think there was a tutorial in a recent issue of *Sun Expert* magazine.
Sorry, I didn't keep it.

--

    dd>    1. If I just plug it into the Sun's SCSI port, should I be in
    dd>    business?

You'll be in business in that the Sun can access the drive just fine;
you don't need any special hardware.  That's what SCSI is all about :)

    dd>    2. If so, do I need to reformat the ZIP disk, and if so, how?
    dd>       My Zip disks are preformatted for MS-DOS.

If you want to transfer info, you should leave them formatted for DOS of
course otherwise DOS can't access them.

    dd>    3. Or is there a way to get Unix to read/write from an MS-DOS
    dd>       file system?  I can do this with floppies by mounting with
    dd>       the "-t pcfs" option; will this work with the Zip?

I see no reason why not.  Just use the SCSI device (usually /dev/sr0 but
might be /dev/sr1 or something depending on the SCSI ID on your zip
drive) in the mount command instead of the floppy device (/dev/fd0).

    dd>    4. If not, what's the best way to read Unix-formatted media on my
    dd>       MS-DOS PC?

The only other way I can think of is to raw-write to the Zip drive.
This means you'll need a program on DOS which will write raw data to the
zip drive as if it were a tape drive or something, so it doesn't need to
be formatted.  One way to do that is to get a copy of GNU tar for DOS
and make a tar file, then use a rawwrite program (you can get one from
various places; I got mine with my Linux distribution) to write the tar
file to the Zip.  Of course, this kind of sucks since you'll have to
have that huge tar file on your disk at some point :-/.  Better would be
something that writes directly to the Zip drive.  I don't know if
there's a tar for DOS that will do that.

On the UNIX side it's trivial; just point tar at the device (/dev/sr0)
without trying to mount it or anything, and it'll work.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Senior Software Engineer                                   Bay Networks, Inc.
-----------------------------------------------==<http://www.baynetworks.com/>-
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     These are my opinions--Bay Networks takes no responsibility for them.

sun expert just published an article with a driver on this subject last
month, look it up/  i just looked in a wholesale catalog and they were
priced at $185 wholesale, plus $20 for media
powerstar inc.
gaithersburg maryland
800-209-5556
fax 301-948-0715

: I have an Iomega ZIP drive (it's a portable disk drive with removeable
: 100MB cartridges).  It has a SCSI port normally intended for PCs and Macs.
: Does anyone have any idea how to use it to extract data from a Sun
: workstation (specifically, a SPARCstation 10)?  I need to do a one-time
: transfer of a lot of data from the Sun (which is running Sun Unix 4.1.3)
: to my PC.  I already know how to handle the PC side.

: My questions:

:    1. If I just plug it into the Sun's SCSI port, should I be in business?
:    2. If so, do I need to reformat the ZIP disk, and if so, how?  My Zip
:       disks are preformatted for MS-DOS.
:    3. Or is there a way to get Unix to read/write from an MS-DOS file
:       system?  I can do this with floppies by mounting with the "-t pcfs"
:       option; will this work with the Zip?
:    4. If not, what's the best way to read Unix-formatted media on my
:       MS-DOS PC?
:    5. Has anyone done this already?
:    6. Is there some easier way to transfer a few hundred megabytes to
:       my PC?  Transferring by modem would take about four straight days.
:       I don't have a tape drive on my PC, nor do I know anyone who does.

: Thanks for your assistance.
: --
: "Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction?
: Fiction, after all, has to make sense." -- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

As I understand the Mac SCSI connectors and cables have only 25 pins as
opposed to the 50 pins which SCSI requires. I have never worked with Mac
SCSI but a very reasonable guess would be that the Macs do not use the
25 Ground lines on SCSI bus reducing a 50-pin connection to a 25-pin
connection.

I have worked on designing SCSI drives on Unix system for a few years.
My experience has been that a 50-pin twisted pair SCSI cable is an
absolute must for reliable operation on SCSI bus since the high
frequency signals are susceptible to noise. The 25 ground lines are used
to build in noise immunity in the cables. Based upon my experience, I
would be very reluctant to use a 25 conductor SCSI cable especially on
the same bus that the system disks are on.

Please enlighten/correct me ragarding the Mac SCSI connectors/cables.
I would also be interested in hearing about any strange system
hangs/crashes when ZIP drive was on the same bus as the system disks.

--

Khalid Aziz

Quote:>I have an Iomega ZIP drive (it's a portable disk drive with removeable
>100MB cartridges).  It has a SCSI port normally intended for PCs and Macs.
>Does anyone have any idea how to use it to extract data from a Sun
>workstation (specifically, a SPARCstation 10)?  I need to do a one-time
>transfer of a lot of data from the Sun (which is running Sun Unix 4.1.3)
>to my PC.  I already know how to handle the PC side.

>My questions:

>   1. If I just plug it into the Sun's SCSI port, should I be in business?
>   2. If so, do I need to reformat the ZIP disk, and if so, how?  My Zip
>      disks are preformatted for MS-DOS.
>   3. Or is there a way to get Unix to read/write from an MS-DOS file
>      system?  I can do this with floppies by mounting with the "-t pcfs"
>      option; will this work with the Zip?
>   4. If not, what's the best way to read Unix-formatted media on my
>      MS-DOS PC?
>   5. Has anyone done this already?
>   6. Is there some easier way to transfer a few hundred megabytes to
>      my PC?  Transferring by modem would take about four straight days.
>      I don't have a tape drive on my PC, nor do I know anyone who does.

This script was in Sun Expert...

#!/bin/sh
# do_zip - set up an Iomega Zip 100 disk
#
# Usage: do_zip <disk>
#
# must be run as root.
# Runs under SunOS 4.1.x
# Optimizes disk for space, not speed
# Resulting space is about 97 MB
# Creates file system on /dev/<disk>c
#
# Written by Rich Morin, PTF, 950404, Public Domain

if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
        echo "Usage: do_zip <disk>"
        exit 1
fi
disk=$1

C=/tmp/do_zip.1.$$      # commands
D=/tmp/do_zip.2.$$      # data
N=/tmp/do_zip.3.$$      # noise

cat > $D << 'EOF1'
disk_type=T : ctlr=SCSI : rpm=3600 : bpt=98304 \
 : nhead=2 : nsect=192 \
 : ncyl=510 : acyl=2 : pcyl=512
partition=P : ctlr=SCSI : disk=T : c=0,195840
EOF1

cat > $C << 'EOF2'
label
q
EOF2

touch $N

echo "do_zip: running format"
format -s -x $D -f $C -p P -t $disk

echo "do_zip: running newfs"
newfs -m 5 ${disk}c > $N

rm -f $C $D $N

        What issue was the zip drive detailed in Sun Expert?  What was
on the cover?  Thanks.

--

         UNIX System and Network Administrator - Hull Trading Company
  Chicago |New York |Philadelphia |Kansas City |London |Frankfurt |Hong Kong
"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."  -John Gilmore

Quote:>    What issue was the zip drive detailed in Sun Expert?

June, 1995.

_______

It is in the June 1995 issue of Sun Expert, Vol. 6, No. 6.  On the cover is
an hourglass with the caption "Breaking Storage Bottlenecks".

--
_____      ___     Tom L. Schmidt, Manager, Component Characterization
  |  |    /   \    Micron Technology, Inc.
  |  |    \___     8000 S. Federal Way  P.O. Box 6  Mail Stop 376
  |  |        \    Boise, Idaho USA  83707-0006

Quote:>> This script was in Sun Expert...

>    What issue was the zip drive detailed in Sun Expert?  What was
>on the cover?  Thanks.

June 95. Hourglass and CD-ROMs on the cover.

dk smith

--

anyone tried tar or cpio to one of these drives?

Mtools doesn't support the PC filesystem on these, does it?

what i'm really after here is a solution to allow non-root users to use
a Zip attached to a sun; the solution described in Sun Expert uses
format and newfs and mount, none of which i really want my users to be
able to run.

thanks in advance for any info.

If anyone needs the script and can't find sunexpert, let me know.

danno
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 something important, like the fall of communism or the fact that our
 refrigerator is still working.