SCSI Toolbox :: Newsletter - November 2002

IN THIS EDITION
SCSItoolbox Version 3.9 Shipping
Win a 128MB MP3 Player/Storage Device!
DriveGuard Announcement
Free SCSI Compliance software
Did you know?
Ask Dr. SCSI
What's coming in the next edition?!


Version 3.9 Shipping to Performa Customers
Current Performa Customers are eligible to the latest SCSItoolbox32 (version 3.9). If you have not received your copy yet, please contact Jeremy Wolfe - Sales Manager at 720.249.2641. To receive your fully functional seven day evaluation copy of the SCSI Toolbox, please fill out the demo form here: http://www.scsitoolbox.com/demo.html. Release notes for 3.9 can be viewed here: http://www.scsitoolbox.com/notes.html.


Participate in the SCSItoolbox Survey and WIN!
Because you have received this email, you're eligible to participate in the STB November '02 Survey. By giving us a few minutes of your time you'll be entered into the drawing to win a Creative Labs MuVo 128MB USB MP3 Player the winner will be announced in the December Newsletter!


DriveGuard© Announcement
SCSI Toolbox, LLC is proud to announce a new software diagnostic company that will revolutionize the Enterprise Backup Storage Industry, DriveGuard! DriveGuard is an intelligent, distributed storage management tool that monitors and records the Data Reliability FactorsTM of all data storage devices on every computer across your network. An evaluation of DriveGuard and more information will be available shortly at http://www.drive-guard.com.


Free SCSI Command Compliance Testing
The SCSItoolbox includes SCSI Compliance testing for free. There's no need to buy a separate software package for testing SCSI compliance. For more details click here.


Did you know?
If you are hexadecimally challenged ScriptwriterPro can help! Our own Glenn Dean has a Phd in math, and he has no problems with hex or decimal or binary numbers. But if you are baffled by passing LBA's to SCSI CDB's as hex numbers, we have a helpful function for you.

The SCSIDec2Hex() in SWP lets you pass in a decimal number, and an array of four integers. The function will convert the decimal number into a 4-byte hex value, and fill the array that you passed it with those bytes. So if you need to issue a SCSI READ to LBA 123456, just call SCSIDec2Hex() and let it do the math work for you. Or, call Glenn at (303). . .just kidding Dr. Glenn!


Ask Dr. SCSI
The Doctor gets asked this question at least several times a week, so we thought it was high time we brought it out into the open, exposed it to the light of day, as it were.

"What is this oh so frequently asked question", you ask? And why do we bring up deep philosophical issues like "the light of day" when all you want to do is test SCSI peripherals? The answer to these, and possibly a few other important questions, may be answered if only we can get off the phone with the umpteenth SCSI diagnostician who just asked the same question! So here it is, in all its shame - the question of the ages - the most frequently asked question of all questions:

"Can the SCSItoolbox read the firmware out of a disk drive and write it to a file that I can then download into another drive"

There, we've said it. Don't you feel better already, just getting it out in the open like that? And really, who among us hasn't at one time or other asked this question? Perhaps not out loud where innocent children or lawyers might hear, but deep in our most private, secret place, who hasn't at least wondered if this, could be done.

And the answer is a simple "No, you can't do that". No blazing spotlight on the ethics of why perhaps you might want to do such a thing. No discussion of the morality of intellectual property law. No heartfelt speeches about economics or capitalism. No, all of these intriguingly thorny issues can be safely circumvented by the simple expedient fact that drive manufacturers don't implement a SCSI command that lets you do this.