SCO

Ok, I blew out the FDD from the front and tried to format a 3.5 in the system using dosformat /dev/fd0135ds18:

This is what I get:

Formatting...
dosformat: Error formatting drive

Should I just replace the drive?

yes, that would be a good second step. The first would be to

Code:

tail -40 /usr/adm/messages | more

as root. That should show enough of the last boot to see if the fd0 device is seen.

If seen but inoperative, replace.

If not seen you may want to look in the CMOS setup to verify that it and the controller are active.

Here's what I got with that command:

SCO OpenServer(TM) Release 5

(C) 1976-1998 The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
(C) 1980-1994 Microsoft Corporation
All rights reserved.

For complete copyright credits,
enter "copyrights" at the command prompt.

device address vec dma comment
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
%kernel - - - rel=3.2v5.0.5 kid=98/07/02
%cpu - - - unit=1 family=6
%cpuid - - - unit=1 vend=GenuineIntel tfms=0:6:7:3
%fpu - 13 - unit=1 type=80387-compatible
%pci 0x0CF8-0x0CFF - - am=1 sc=0 buses=2
%PnP - - - nodes=0
%serial 0x03F8-0x03FF 4 - unit=0 type=Standard nports=1 fifo=yes
%serial 0x02F8-0x02FF 3 - unit=1 type=Standard nports=1 fifo=yes
%console - - - unit=vga type=0 12 screens=68k
%floppy 0x03F2-0x03F7 6 2 unit=0 type=135ds18
%kbmouse 0x0060-0x0064 12 - type=Keyboard mouse
%PnP - - - nodes=0
%serial 0x03F8-0x03FF 4 - unit=0 type=Standard nports=1 fifo=yes
%serial 0x02F8-0x02FF 3 - unit=1 type=Standard nports=1 fifo=yes
%console - - - unit=vga type=0 12 screens=68k
%floppy 0x03F2-0x03F7 6 2 unit=0 type=135ds18
%kbmouse 0x0060-0x0064 12 - type=Keyboard mouse
%parallel 0x0378-0x037A 7 - unit=0
%adapter 0x01F0-0x01F7 14 - type=IDE ctlr=primary dvr=wd
slha 4.06.00
%adapter 0x1400-0x1480 11 0 type=slha ha=0 id=7 Chip=875 -6 40600
%eeE0 0x1060-0x107F 5 - type=EE PRO/100+ 00:90:27:73:ad:c4
%epca 0x0324-0x0324 - - mem=0x000D0000 ports=16 ISA X(e)m V7.0.5
%cd-rom - - - type=IDE ctlr=pri cfg=mst dvr=Srom->wd
%tape - - - type=S ha=0 id=2 lun=0 bus=0 ht=slha
%disk - - - type=S ha=0 id=0 lun=0 bus=0 ht=slha
%Sdsk - - - cyls=1115 hds=255 secs=63 fts=stdb
mem: total = 130616k, kernel = 12912k, user = 117704k
swapdev = 1/41, swplo = 0, nswap = 393216, swapmem = 196608k
Autoboot from rootdev = 1/42, pipedev = 1/42, dumpdev = 1/41
kernel: Hz = 100, i/o bufs = 6652k

Tue Jul 12 14:18:30 2011
%Stp-0 - - - Vendor=TANDBERG Product= SLR5 4/8GB

#

Indicates that the OS is aware of it. Time to replace it for read or write errors.

What you are looking at is part of the previous and all of the last hardware list that the OS found on boot. Sometimes problems show up on the list.

Thanks very much for the help!
Swapped in an FDD from a garbage PC in our warehouse and it works fine. Formatted 3.5s and wrote files to them.

Don't know why I thought the drive would have been SCSI, it was not

Anyone know where I can find a users manual for SYNCHRONICS IQ Report Writer Version 3.02.17 ???