Article 159536 of comp.os.vms:
In article <567f2m$nec$1@nntpd.lkg.dec.com>, everhart@star.enet.dec.com (Glenn C. Everhart) writes:
> There was a report that once you format a ZIP drive, it works under the
> 7.1 drivers on vms.
>
> DKdriver doesn't directly know how to format the thing with io$_format;
> you'd have to send a format packet in scsi form to the device with
> io$_diagnose. Then it'll work. That sort of thing's been done here;
> maybe I can get the guy who wrote a util to do it to put it on the v4
> freeware or something.
> glenn

Actually, you don't send the SCSI format command to the ZIP drive, you send the
SCSI erase command.  I am not a SCSI expert, but the ZIP drive documentation
says that you need to do an "erase with surface verify".  With my DEC 3000
Model 300X, I have found that I can do a "TEST SCSI ERASE" on the drive but not
a "TEST SCSI FORMAT".  The former works but the later fails.  By the by, I am
using VMS V6.2-1H3 and the drive doesn't work.  I am looking forward to getting
V7.1 and trying it with that....
--
Samuel Rahenkamp                  | All opinions expressed here are my
Net: Samuel.Rahenkamp@srs.gov     | own and should not be interpreted as
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