HP 16702B no hard drive

[bristpi176]

Hi

I'm resurrecting an HP 16702B that someone sanitized for disposal by removing the hard drive.  It powers on and obviously fails to boot but gets to that point.  Are there any pitfalls out there for getting this back working?  Any help in not wasting time and money is appreciated.

Thanks

[gslick]

As a 'B' model it should have the built in SCSI CD-ROM drive you can use to boot the reinstall CD, so if the missing SCSI HD is the only issue all you need to do is burn a copy of the A.02.90 reinstall CD, and obtain a SCSI HD to replace the missing one to install as a boot HD.

50-pin SCSI HDs are hard to find and expensive now. I use 68-pin SCSI HDs with 68-pin male to 50-pin male adapter plugs. Agilent also did that as original equipment at some point during the product cycle.

I've had OK luck using 68-pin IBM DNES-309170 9GB drives, although they can be a bit loud. I've never tried to fit an 80-pin SCSI drive and adapter to the 50-pin cable. That might be more of a mechanical challenge.

[helius]

Have you ever checked the diagnostic write counts on a drive in a LA? If they don't do that much writing a SCSI2SD might work well.

[james_s]

I've used lots of 80 pin SCA drives with 50 pin adapters, every one that I've tried has worked fine. I particularly like the 2.5" drives made for blade servers, unlike most server drives they are very quiet, almost silent.

[bristpi176]

Are there any issues with software licenses?  I’ve read that it may be hobbled somewhat because it can’t run all the options.

[gslick]

Are there any issues with software licenses?  I’ve read that it may be hobbled somewhat because it can’t run all the options.

All of the features than can be installed from the standard software installation CD can be enabled. There have been previous discussions about this on the forum.

I don't know how often anyone actually uses any of these.

[MarkL]

Another HD that Agilent used in the 16702B is the IBM DPSS-309170N (68-pin), but browsing through ebay it doesn't seem to be as common as the DNES-309170.

If you go with the SCSI2SD, the v5.1 hardware will drop-in for the HD.

If you want to go with the higher performance SCSI2SD v6 hardware, last I was aware it has a conflict with the CDROM drive and both cannot be on the SCSI bus at the same time.  However, there is a workaround where you can configure the SCSI2SD to emulate both the HD and CDROM devices at the same time.  You then copy the CDROM image onto the SD card and then do the install with only the SCSI2SD on the bus.  I haven't tried it myself, but this was mentioned on the HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment list on groups.io.

On the licensing, all the options are available for free with HPAK's permission, provided they are only used for non-commercial purposes.  See these posts for details:

  https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/message/69153
  https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/message/89205

[free_electron]

i have original drives for those machines. i also have the memory upgrade ( both main memory and graphics memory )
if you are interested PM me.

[PaulAm]

Be sure you get the correct .iso.  One that Keysight originally put up was corrupted but the good one isn't hard to find.

[MarkL]

Be sure you get the correct .iso.  One that Keysight originally put up was corrupted but the good one isn't hard to find.

This is a good one:

  https://archive.org/details/B37601424316700A.02.90.00

2.90 is the latest, and last, version for the 16700 series.