  Third-Party Storage? (Sony MO) 
 The Question is:
 
I have been trying to install a SONY-F561 MO drive onto an ALPHA ES40 server
 using KOMNETWORKS third party software. However,
I am intrigued to find that I can load up the drive using standard vms
 procedures and be able to initialise/mount/copy the disks without any
 problems. However I can only do this if I use a rewriteable disk that has 512
 bps only. What I would like to know
is, why can I only use 512 and not 1024/4096 bps?
 
Regards
Andy Wright
 
 The Answer is :
 
  By BPS, the OpenVMS Wizard will assume the reference is Bytes Per Sector.
  (And not Bits Per Second, another commonly-used abbreviation.)
 
  OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS Alpha, and OpenVMS I64 all use and all assume a 512
  byte block for disk storage, and contains support for reading and writing
  devices that provide this block size.  (OpenVMS typically uses the terms
  disk block and disk cluster for the addressable and allocatable units of
  disk storage, respectively.)
 
  OpenVMS has no particular support for this device and this device may or
  may not function (reliably or otherwise) at any particular setting, and
  you will want to contact the device vendor for assistance.  For general
  third-party device integration and related information, please see the
  OpenVMS Frequently Asked Questions.  Specifically also see the section
  on OpenVMS and CD block-size support, as that discussion is very likely
  related here.
 Answer written or last revised on  5-MAY-2003 
