All the magneto-optical disks I have are single-sided. Does anyone here have any double-sided ones?
Just curious,
-- josé k.
In among a stack of NeXT branded MO disks I have
there is a "Canon MO-502M", "Double Sided, 256MB/Side"
disk that is labeled as if both sides have been used.
Luke
Slide the cover back and see if it is indeed coated and sectored on both sides.
Thanks,
-- josé k.
Yes it is sectored on both sides, unlike the NeXT branded
MO disks I have.
"502M Reformatted Disks for your Canofile 250 or 510 optical scanner"
are $35 each from
http://www.cannondirect.com/Equipment/R80_Motorized_Roll_Film_Carrie/Canofile_Optical_Disk_Filing_S/canofile_optical_disk_filing_s.htmI wonder if they would work with NeXT MO drives?
Luke
Never thought I would see a reference to a Canofile in this forum ...
I have never seen an NeXT MO drives, but have used and worked on many Canofile systems at a previous job, so it would be kinda ironic if it was the same drive used by NeXT. We also used Diskfile 5001S drives for converting users images off of the Canofile, for transfer to other imaging systems, and I know someone who might still have a couple. Could be interesting to see if you hooked one as an external drive to a cube or station, would it read a NeXT formatted MO disk.
Kinda funny, as if all through my life, things and experiences have been leading me towards "the NeXT side" ... :D
Chef
Quote from: "idylukewild"In among a stack of NeXT branded MO disks I have
there is a "Canon MO-502M", "Double Sided, 256MB/Side"
disk that is labeled as if both sides have been used.
Luke
Is the Canon MO-502M the same physical size as the NeXT-branded MO disks?
-- josé k.
Mine are the same in almost every way. There is
an "A" side and a "B" side. I haven't tried it on my
MO drive. Since the drives are so flakey, I'm
not going to run the drive again until I have some
system set up to copy everything on all of my
MO disks. There might be something rare or
useful on one of the disks.
Luke
Same here. I am afraid to ruin whatever is store on my MO disks by using a flaky drive. BTW, take a look at the Work Logs section. I started a new thread to gather DIY info on servicing the original NeXT (Canon) MO drives.
Take care,
-- josé k.
Has anyone been able to test the Canon 502M disks to see if they work on a Next MO drive ?
Or does anyone have a source for MO disks of other brands that would be Next-compatible ?
I have 10 MO disks; 8 NeXT brand and 2 "Canon MO-502M", "Double Sided, 256MB/Side". I went ahead and tried to read all ten disks on my working MO drive. Believe it or not, I was able to mount and hunt around on the disks for anything that might be interesting, but after about an hour of this the drive went into permanent 'spin up, spin down' mode and I have not been able to revive it. I've tried disassembling the drive and cleaning the insides, including the graduated metal tape thing, with no success. It's still in permanent 'spin up, spin down' mode. The drive was amazingly clean, and I tried cleaning it anyway, so I am almost positive it is not a cleanliness issue.
Anyway, besides being heartbroken because of the failure of the recently working drive, I was able to read both sides of both "Canon MO-502M", "Double Sided, 256MB/Side" disks just as I was able to read the NeXT branded disks. One disk was marked "backups" and had "User Home Directories" on side B and "Root System Backup" on side A. I noted "Root System Backup" included 'Mathematica 2.0 App' but nothing else of interest to me. The second "Canon MO-502M", "Double Sided, 256MB/Side" disk was marked "Local Apps Low Use Files and Backup Also Backup of Some Root Files" (side A) and "External Backup of Low Use Files from Directory JorJay" (side B). I noted side A local apps included Lotus Improve rel 1.0 (v108z0), 'Update 2.1 pkg', wingz app V.1.1a, Vertex app, and Framemaker. I guess side B didn't have anything of interest to me.
The other 8 (NeXT branded, single sided) disks had the following of note:
Bison, Gawk, Perl, Dataphile Beta, Macindisk Toshbrowser, SCSI Inquirer Version 001 (by Canon Inc.), Unsquash, Moon Version Zero, Adobe fonts, Topdraw app V1.0, etc.
Going through these MO drives yielded three major results:
1) It's easy to hose a perfectly working MO drive just by using it for an hour or so.
2) "Canon MO-502M", "Double Sided, 256MB/Side" disk do in fact work in the NeXT MO drive.
3) No holy grails of the NeXT Universe on these 10 disks (unless they were invisible to me).
Luke
Hey Luke!
I was wondering if anyone has tried the OPPOSITE experiment -- that is, has anyone found any other MO drives (not manufactured by NeXT) that can read NeXT MO disks?
Like you, I have a NeXT drive that has failed and I would LOVE to find a substitute drive (or someone with a working NeXT MO drive that can read my disks).
Cheers,
Paul
Paul-
There was some written about other MO drives in the thread "Canon L10130 MO Drive" (and some others). Unfortunately, I have not seen any report of success using another drive to read NeXT disks!
However, gtnicol seems to be an expert with the drives and, although I can't speak for him, he at one time offered to make a media dump of OD media in the thread "Media dump offer". I suggest you PM him.
Luke
Quote from: "idylukewild"I have 10 MO disks; 8 NeXT brand and 2 "Canon MO-502M", "Double Sided, 256MB/Side".
Luke
Hello Luke,
Sorry for not coming back earlier as I'm the one who came back with this question and made the post go up again. Last week I just started a new job and it's been a very busy week.
Anyway, thanks for your very comprehensive answer, and I really feel sorry for what happened to your MO drive. If I can get a MO disk to test my drive, I will for sure not play around to long with it.
It's good news that those Canon disks are working, now i know what to look for.
Thanks a lot and i really hope you will be able to repair your MO drive.
Pascal.
Thanks for your sympathy, Pascal.
Good luck with your drive!
Luke
FWIW. The offer of dumping media is still open. I've been rumping MO's most of this week for a couple of other members and some of my own (finally got some time to do some more NeXT work).
The NeXT drives can read the Canon disks, but the Canon drives cannot read NeXT media. I think the disks are formatted differently, or the firmware is different.