At 06:39 PM 7/31/1998 Jose E. Dominguez wrote:
>
>It's a Digital DEC station 325C, the hard drive is 40MB, it's running DOS 4,
>the floppy has no power connector like the floppies that were accustomed to.
>
>The problem is bigger than I thought, the mail sorting machine will only
>work with Digital computers. Today I found out that even if I can back up
>the drive and install the data on a new drive in a new PC, it won't work
>because of the format or something like that.
>
>We need to get into the setup to correct the floppy situation, and we need
>info on where to buy a used Digital.


Jose:

How about installing a LS-120 drive on an IDE channel?
The drivers will let it install as a "floppy". It may not be bootable
but it will be recognized without having CHS parameters. Then
you can load files on/off a 1.44 floppy or your LS-120 flopticals.

If you want to borrow a Hardcard, let me know, I have a
Plus 50.

If you have a special controller card for the DEC hard drive,
you can possibly transport this drive and controller to a new PC.
Special formatting may be confined to the hardware specifics of
the controller. If the drive itself is going South, you may be able
to clone the drive to a similar model drive, using Drive Copy or
Ghost, and using the same IDE controller.

If you are anchored to the 386 motherboard, then you might try a
CPU upgrade to the 486 level.

IBM PS/2 floppy drives had power supplied via the ribbon cable.
Try one of those (you can only hurt the drive, methinks). The
ribbon pin outs may be published in Mueller's book.

Good luck.

John Chin