Wanted: Driver software for Panasonic/Matsushita LF-7010 or LF-5010 SCSI WORM drive

[Chuck(G)]

For data forensics, a lot of our clients migrated from tape to MO back around then. Specifically Pinnacle Micro Apex 4.6GB drives. Pinnacle had rash of drive failures early on such that warranty service put you on a 3 month delay to get someone else's repaired drive. It's a bit sobering now, looking back and thinking that 4GB was a lot of storage. I may still have a cartridge from one, but I recycled the drive long ago.

 

[jafir]

Nope, the system used to handle the WORM is proprietary to OptiSys. See the following ad from 1987.

So at least we know that it was intended for IBM PC. Next step is to run the data pointers and links and see where that goes. That shouldn't take too long, as I shouldn't be hitting any unused sectors.

And finally, the Wayback machine tells me what I'm looking for OptiDriver. Doubt that I'll find it, but you never know.

Obviously you don’t need this anymore, but there is a listing on eBay for the optidriver.

RARE. Optisys Optidriver 2000 standalone OPT SA. new sealed. Magneto Optical M.O | eBay

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">RARE. Optisys Optidriver 2000 standalone OPT SA. new sealed. Magneto Optical M.O.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Worm file system</p> <br> <p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Brand new unopened...

www.ebay.com

 

[Chuck(G)]

Nutty thing is that after I reverse-engineered the filesystem structure and retrieved all of the files, I discovered the Windows NT driver on a QIC tape. Wouldn't be the first time that something like that happened...

I don't think this may work on the setup that I had. Nothing "magneto" about it--pure phase-change optical. LM-D501W shown in this eBay listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/334660958424

I don't know what the media is that's being offered with the OptiSys software, but it doesn't look like the Panasonic stuff.

Anyone need any blank discs for the thing? I've got a few, still in shrink-wrap. Apparently no one wants these anyway, judging from the asking prices. You get a whopping 470MB per side!

Apparently, the drives themselves are very plentiful and cheap: https://serverxpress.com/products/panasonic-940mb-external-worm-optical-drive-lf-5010