CompuServe Thread

#Help setup Quantum Q280

6 messages in this thread
#124524From: Don Curtis/SYSOPMay 15, 1988 1:36 AM
George, Just for numbers, let's say you have 1000 cylinders available on the drive total. During PREP, you told it how many you wanted to use for the first partition (your 47 Meg worth I presume). Let's say you set it up for cylinders 2 thru 300. Then you create a mountlist entry (or modify the p2: entry) for cylinders 301 thru 600 for the next partition (we'll call it P2: for here, you can call it anything you want thou). You then create another mountlist entry for P3: starting at cylinder 601 thru 999. Once that's done, you simply MOUNT those partitions (MOUNT P2:) (MOUNT P3:) and then FORMAT them. After that, just add the necessary lines in your startup sequence to MOUNT those partitions. Don
#124573From: George GravesMay 15, 1988 10:34 AM
That's all well, Don. Here's the problem… I don't know how to describe the Q280 (having no papers) to AmigaDos via the MountList. Since PREP takes care of the first (RES2) and the second (DH2) auto-magically, I don't really care how they are described. I told PREP that my first partition was to extend to cylinder 522 of 822, leaving me 300 available cylinders. I have used the MountList entry that the 2090 hard disk installation diskette has on it, adjusting the device (3) and the low and high cylinders. I named the partition SCSI1. I can mount the entry SCSI1, but when I format it, I get the message Formatting Cylinder 523, 299 to go (or something to that effect) and then format returns. Format takes a while, so I assume that nothing has happened. Because a Q280 is an 80 meg device, at least two partitions are required, but I can't seem to get them right. I have previously (successfully) partitioned Seagate ST251 devices with no problem. This one has me stumped, but since the first partition is fine, I know it's something dumb that I have done. Thanks for your interest… hoping for more input.
#124655From: Don Curtis/SYSOPMay 15, 1988 3:50 PM
George, Humm…this is strange. You should be able to duplicate the RES2: entry (or the P2: entry) and only change the high and low cylinders and the number of reserved blocks. Oh…how many surfaces does it have, you say 822 cylinders and 80 meg drive, that's about 100K per cylinder. Let's see 17 sectors per track at 512 bytes per sector or 8,704 bytes per track which is 17408 bytes per platter so you need about 5.88 platters to get 100K per cylinder. That would be 10 or 12 heads (surfaces)…does that sound reasonable? Try 10 surfaces and see if that works. Don
#124717From: George GravesMay 15, 1988 9:34 PM
That's the ticket. But instead of 17 blocks per track, this thing gets 19. I don't have any info on the drive but info shows 82326 blocks in use and 16662 blocks free on the device for a total of 98988. Two blocks are reserved at the beginning of the disk for a total of 98990. Dividing by 521 cylinders in this partition gives 190 blocks per cylinder. Your figure of 10 surfaces is a good guess, but rather than the more usual 17 blocks per track, there are 19 on this drive. I set up a new MountList with this information and it just formatted properly. By the way, these drives are available from a firm in OH for about $600 which is a great price for an 80 meg SCSI. Much quieter than the old Seagate. Thanks for your assistance. 73… George
#124765From: Don Curtis/SYSOPMay 16, 1988 12:26 AM
George, Great! Glad to have been of assistance. Don
#124670From: BILL LEACHMay 15, 1988 4:53 PM
George: Mount RES2: first! 73, bill