An AlphaStation 255/233 recently found it's way to my doorstep. The previous owner claims it has been off since 2007.
It took several trys reseating all the components and cables but it finally lit up an LCD monitor.
At first '>>>sh dev d' listed DKA0, DKA100 and DKA400 as drives where the last device is the SCSI CDROM.
I booted my OpenVMS 8.3 install media and tried setting DKA0 as the system drive. That effort failed and now the device no longer shows up during install or from the ROM monitor.
I know at one point I reset the DIP switches on the main board which should have reset the NVRAM and RTC.
Could this have made the drive dissapear?
...or is it more likely that the reason it was turned off in 2007 was that the system drive had failed?
Are there any diagnostics that I can run?
Is there any chance that a commodity SCSI drive will work or do I need to look for something special?
Standard SCSI drives work, generally. Remember that there are multiple SCSI interfaces now, though. It will be easiest if you determine what the failed drive was and the type of interface it used, and match that.
You do not have to pay high prices for original DEC drives, though. I'm using Seagate drives from Ebay on my PWS 433au and they work fine.
There may be a drive size limitation, but I don't know what it is.
With SCSI, I don't think the RPM matters, but older software may not take enough advantage of the extra capabilities of the drive to make it worthwhile.
malmberg August 04 2022 No more VAX hobbyist licenses.
Community licenses for Alpha/IA64/X86_64 VMS Software Inc.
Commercial VMS software licenses for VAX available from HPE.
ozboomer July 20 2022 Just re-visiting.. No more hobbyist licenses? Is that from vmssoftware.com, no 'community' licenses?
valdirfranco July 01 2022 No more hobbyist license...sad
mister_wavey February 12 2022 I recall that the disks failed on the public access VMS systems that included Fafner
parwezw January 03 2022 Anyone know what happened to FAFNER.DYNDS.ORG?
I had a hobbyist account here but can longer access the site.
gtackett October 27 2021 Make that DECdfs _2.1A_ for Vax
gtackett October 27 2021 I'm looking for DECdfs V2.4A kit for VAX.
Asking here just in case anyone is still listening.
MarkRLV September 17 2021 At one time, didn't this web site have a job board? I would love to use my legacy skills one last time in my career.
malmberg January 18 2021 New Hobbyist PAKs for VAX/VMS are no longer available according to reports. Only commercial licenses are reported to be for sale from HPE
dfilip January 16 2021 Can someone please point me to hobbyist license pak? I'm looking for VAX/VMS 7.1, DECnet Phase IV, and UCX/TCPIP ... have the 7.1 media, need the license paks ... thanks!
