#HD failure
18 messages in this thread
Hardware: 2000, ST-251 (MFM), 2090 Last night I turn on my machine and the
startup-sequence fails. Looks like a file is corrupted. Turns out dozens of
files appear to be corrupted. The situation deteriorates to the point where
the system crashes when some backups are attempted. A reboot laboriously
brings up Dh0: . Info shows gigabytes in use and (it follows) negative
gigabytes free. What's weird? Only (apparent) problems are with dh0: –
other two partitions are fine. More strange, I never got any "disk
write/read error" requesters. Just "File is not an object module" or "unable
to open..library." – that kind of stuff. The system was free of faults for
the 3 weeks since I set it up.
Okay, so next step is to reformat. No good. Format proceeds to end but
then DOS can't "Validate." Info shows the same wacky space information as
before. Now what? My girlfriend is mad 'cuz I didn't respond to her
advances while this was going on. This is serious!
Art,
Backup your other partitions and try this:
Boot without the binddrivers
Try to mount RES0: and DH0: (you might have to move the file
expansion/hddisk into devs/hddisk.device..well, copy it not move it)
Now try to format dh0:
If that doesn't work, you might have to start all over again with a
re-PREP of the drive.
Don
I didn't try a remount of RES0: and DH0: by using hddisk as
devs:hddisk.device. I didn't know you could although intuitively that always
seemed like the proper way.
I did re-prep the drive after backing up the other partitions. (Thank
goodness I had multiple partitions and thank Chip Orange for BACKER. BACKER
politely called me from the other room to change disks during my dinner.)
After many attempts I did succeed. A couple times after going through the
whole prep sequence without a hitch I got unceremoniously dumped back to CLI
with "Device RES0: not PREPed." Swine! I formatted dh0: twice since the
first time I got a Key validation error right at the commencement of the
format. Hmmm… That's as far as I've gotten.
While I'm messing around with this I though I'd do some advance work on the
1.3 FFS. Namely, make my dh0: partition really tiny since you can't use it
with FFS (and since it seems more prone to screw ups!). How small can/should
I make it. One cylinder, perhaps? I don't HAVE to put anything on it,
right? Am I allowed to call subsequent partitions dh1:, dh2:, etc. This
contradicts the 2090 manual but not the mountlist on the 1.3G WB (Don't
worry. I'm not going NEAR it until I get this situation stable). — Art
Art,
Try this:
Open the A2000 (power off of course). Unplug and then plug back in
all the connections for the HD including the A2090 into the slot. Then try
your PREP and FORMAT again.
I'm sorry, but I can't give you any information on the FFS.
Don
Art,
I have a Dh0: and a DH1 that are on separate drives, and are 1 cylinder
each. I keep some startup stuff on them, because it gets me off the floppy
very quickly. My startup-sequence looks like:
binddrivers
dh0:newcli from dh0:hdstart
dh0:endcli >nil:
DH0: contains newcli, assign, mount, newfs, etc. Dh1: may contain some of
these…
Anyway… it's quite workable that way.
-larry
Thank you all for those enlightening comments. This low level format
thing was basically a semantic issue. Separate low-level formatting of
ST-506 drives is not applicable on the Amiga with the 2090. How's that?
Larry, I'll try a one cylinder dh0: partition. Thanks. Wish me luck.
— Art
Semantics it was Art. Good luck.
-larry
Well, I put things back together and all seems okey-dokey. Two symptoms
puzzle me. My (now one cyl.) dh0: gave me "key validation error" and "error
reading disk" etc. when I started to format it but continued after I CANCELed
each requester. I formatted it again and got no such requesters. Second,
when, just for grins, I tried to fill dh0: (57K) up I got no "Disk Full"
message. The copy task just hung at the file which would have filled it up
with the source floppy spinning. Next I'm gonna try removing my Starboard
and see if that is contributing to this flakeyness. — Art
Art,
The first symptom was probably caused by the disk-validator running and
finding no root block where it thought it should be. After formatting, the
root block will have been in the right place, so no error would occur.
I'm not too sure about the second one, except that I have had a similar
occurrence. I'll try it on a 'binddrivered' partition and see if I still get
it.
-larry
Semantics and a total lack of familiarity with the 2090 on my part. Sorry if
I caused you to pursue a nondomesticated fowl.
Rick
Did you do a low-level format, or just a high-level variety?
Rick
I was told here that ST-501 drives do not need low level formatting so, no,
just a PREP then FORMAT. I mean, C= doesn't provide any means to do a low
level, eh? The dang thing worked flawlessly for three weeks and 3/4 of the
drive on two other partitions was just fine. See my reply to Don for more
tribulations. — Art
"I was told… that ST-501 drives do not need low level formatting…"
Someone is pulling your leg. In fact I'm rather surprised you didn't fall
down, they tugged on it so hard. All hard drives require low level
information of some sort, and unless a platter surface is a dedicated
read-only servo source, there is always the possibility of garbling the low
level information. I have seen a half-dozen hard drives go down and need
complete reformatting, on systems from Amigas to IBM clones. Personally I'd
feel VERY uncomfortable about owning a hard drive if I had no way to perform
a low level format.
Basically it comes down to this: if your drive has a soft crash (as opposed
to a hard (head) crash, which is fatal beyond repair), you try to recover the
data through normal means. If that doesn't work, you attempt a normal
format. If that doesn't work, you attempt a low-level format. If THAT
doesn't work, you have serious problems.
What exactly is this PREP you mentioned? Could that be a low level format?
(I know nothing about the C/A drives, controller or software).
Rick
"Someone is pulling your leg."
Au contraire, O Wedge breath." 🙂
On the 2090, the hddisk.device performs the required low lwvel format when
given a 'FORMAT' packet by the Amigados format program. The I/O command,
'FORMAT', is sent with a length equal to the number of tracks on a cylinder,
and the driver will issue a format to the controller, with the right starting
sector and length of data. The advantage to doing things this way is that any
partiton may be low level formatted.
After the FORMAT command is executed, a read of the same length is sent, and
the data verified.
WHat this means is that you only really need to run the full Amigados format
the first time you use the drive. After that, you could have a program that
only writes the root block, bitmap blocks, and sector 0 in any partition. Of
course if you clobber the drive with sufficient damage to the sector
information, a complete Amigados format would be needed. A program that can
do a minimal high level format will be along…. RSN. It will work on most
drivers/drives/controllers after they have had a low level format.
-larry
"Au contraire, O Wedge breath…"
Watch yer mouth, bitbrain! 😉
You will note that the statement was made that "ST-506 drives do not require
low level formatting". This is an absolute statement which is INCORRECT. All
hard drives (with the exceptions I gave) MUST BE LOW LEVEL FORMATTED. Unless
someone can show me information otherwise, I stand by this as a fact and what
I said as correct.
Now the fact that a FORMAT on the 2090 does in fact AUTOMATICALLY do a low
level format does NOT change the fact that a low level format is needed. Wait
a minute… <purging mental text buffer of all future occurances of the word
FACT>… okay, I'm back. Whoever made that original statement should have
said "ST-506 drives don't need low level formatting on the 2090 controller",
or "the 2090 controller does a low level format automatically". But the
statement which was made was incomplete, misleading, and is what started this
whole mess. 8)
Anyways, if a low-level format HAS been done, and if the drive is STILL not
functioning… well, that's bad news of another sort entirely.
Rick
Wait, wait, you're both right…It is both a floor wax and a desert topping!
🙂
Seriously, sometimes when people throw the term 'low-level formatting' around
what they actually mean is 'rewrite the adaptec disk geometry by the private
SCSI command' which the 2090 software does not automatically do.
Just throwing it in…
andy
Well, as you are now talking far over my flying head, I am going to park my
mouth before I get totally on the wrong track and end up with a mental block
or am accused of being a SCSI kind of person.
Rique
Write on, info seeker!