#HardFrame Question
3 messages in this thread
On the 1.58 Installation disk, they mention the QUICK format only when you
know your drive is new and never formatted (which was my case). They
mention to use the full FORMAT for new drives. Even when I FIRST bought my
HardFrame, I didn't use the QUICK option on my Quantum 80MB drive and
everything worked fine. With the new 210MB Quantum though, the full FORMAT
doesn't work. I called Microbotics a second time and this time, they
mentioned to try formatting it with the QUICK option. Having tried that
AFTER the full format with no change in results, I tried it after a cold
boot (and in my stupidity, I formatted my last working partition with NO
backup!). Having absolutely nothing to lose (and in waiting for my
TrumpCard Pro to be shipped as my last resort), I formatted each partition
with the Quick option and had NO problems. I'd rather format the long way
for the first time though.
My system is back in action (and I still don't have the TC Pro I ordered)
and I haven't had a problem for a week. I also just got through installing
the new 1.9 Eprom, but according to Microbotics, this new revision is
primarily for removable media.
Now to get my Quarterback updated to 4.2 to get the AE high density drive
used for backups! 🙂
Thanks, Dan McCoy 73617,2626
– via Whap!
Dan:
Ah, the docs have changed since I looked at them last. We have our version
of the Rdprep/x software updated electronically, so I've gotten careless
about researching the docs every update. As I told Bob, we do a long
format whenever we hook up a new type of drive. Once we know where the
last accessible cylinder is, we use the QUICK option and simply set the
RDB's "LastCyl" parameter correctly.
The differences in long formats failing or not failing could be in how each
manufacturer's drive reports the total number of cylinders available. If
the manufacturer includes the spares with those available, my experience
has been that the format fails prematurely with respect to the reported
"last" cylinder. If they hold back the spares, then everything should long
format fine. Since we're a conservative (and superstitious 🙂 lot, we tend
to leave a little more spare at the inner part of the drive. This is not
really a big loss, since the inner cyls are pretty slow on zoned drives.
Ariel
I've been also contacting Microbotics via Bix. The last message I got
mentioned they might have found a quirk with their driver. They also
mentioned that AmigaDOS isn't recognizing the MAXTRANSFER value upon FORMAT
either (although both problems can be one and the same). Since I've gotten
it up with the QUICK option for now, I'll leave things the way they are. I
also had my Trumpcard upgraded to the PRO (in a last ditch effort to get
things going) and I might try that controller for a while.
Thanks for the messages. Online services like this is worth every cent!
Dan McCoy 73617,2626
– via Whap!