I tried to copy a running hardisk by standard backup commands to a 73 GB seagate SCSI harddisk . Although there were no errors , target hardisk failed to complete boot sequence . If i perform same operation on an older 9.1 GB compac harddisk i get proper working copy . Can anybody guide me how to use newer hardisks of 18 GB or 73 GB capacity to make a working backup of my DCS system harddisk .?

Nadeem,

You may need to use a newer version of OpenVMS (current VAX version is 7.3-1, current Alpha/Integrity version is 8.4) or apply a patch ("ECO"). I found this in the OpenVMS FAQ:

"Some SCSI disks with capacities larger than 8.58 gigabytes (GB) will require the use of an OpenVMS ECO kit (eg: ALPSCSI04_062 or later) for new SCSI device drivers. Failure to use this ECO can cause "rounding errors" on the SCSI disk device capacity-OpenVMS will not use nor display the full capacity of the drive-and "%sysinit-e-error mounting system device status equals 000008C4" (8C4 -> "%SYSTEM-?-FILESTRUCT, unsupported file structure level") errors during bootstrap. One workaround for the bootstrap when the bitmap is located far into the disk is the use of INIT/INDEX=BEGIN.) The problem here involves the particular extensions and fields used for larger capacity disks within the SCSI specifications and within the various intepretations of same."

You could also try the workaround this hints at: Initialize the large disk before you run the backup with /INDEX=BEGIN; then, when you run the image backup, use the /NOINITIALIZE qualifier so backup will not relocate the index file.

Also note that there are some restrictions in the console ROMS of certain older systems.