CompuServe Thread

#2090/hard drive problem

8 messages in this thread
#28425From: PAUL NICHOLSJan 2, 1989 12:45 PM
Don, Thanks for your response. My "can not find handler" error seems to have had to do with a corrupted workbench disk. The problem I am having does seem to concern the jumpers on the drive. If I have any of them in (A0,A1,A2, indicating devices 1 through 6) the 2090 will not communicate with the drive at all. The controller will only prep the device when all jumpers are out — indicating device number 0. Yet the 2090 prep software automatically renames the reserved section of the drive RES2, indicating device number 3. After preping the drive I am able to mount it but when I try to format it as FS2, as is suggested in the 1.3 documentation, the drive lights for a moment but the formating process stops without having formatted any cylinders. The drive has been formatted and validated sucessfully on another 2000 using the GVP controller and software (which reads SCSI drives as unit 0). Is it possible I am doing something wrong in my user defined prep instuctions? As per the Quantum ProDrive 80S documentation, I am defining the drive as having 6 heads, 834 cylinders and 35 sectors per track. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again. Paul Nichols
#28471From: Bob RakoskyJan 2, 1989 7:33 PM
Paul, You are confusing the "SCSI unit number" with the "2090's unit number". This is an easy thing to do, as the 2090's documentation requires at least three readings – the first two for conflicting interpretations and the third as a tie-breaker. <grin> The 'units' from the 2090's perspective are: 0 – first ST506 drive (RES0:) 1 – 2nd ST506 drive (RES1:) 2 – First SCSI device (SCSI unit 0 – RES2:) 3 – 2nd SCSI device (SCSI unit 1 – RES3:) 4 – 3rd SCSI device (SCSI unit 2 – RES4:) etc. So, as you've discovered, when the SCSI drive is jumpered as unit 0, it is really unit 2 (RES2:) to the 2090. Hope this helps….BobR
#29310From: PAUL NICHOLSJan 7, 1989 12:46 PM
Thanks for the information. The 2090 documentation is very confusing over this area. I will try changing my mountlist and re-prep.
#29350From: Claude J. GoschJan 7, 1989 7:50 PM
Paul, I had similar experiences with my HD. With the jumpers set as I thought they should be, and the drive reponding to PREP, I'd go to format, get a message that it was formatting the first cylinder, then it quit – with no error message. Don gave me some good advice to correct my mountlist errors, but even with that corrected, it wouldn't format. I finally called Seagate and found out that the write precompression cylinder fo my drive (which was supposed to have 615 cylinders ) was cylinder 616! PREP was suggesting 615 and would not let me use 616 until I told it I had 616 cylinders. I only fomatted (per my mountlist entry) to 614 per Don's recommendation (the cylinders are numbered 0 to 614). After I had the write precomp value corrected, formatting worked. I still don't understand exactly what this cylinder no. means, but apparently it was critical in my case. Claude
#28552From: Don Curtis/SYSOPJan 3, 1989 1:38 AM
Paul, As Bob said…the jumpers you see are SCSI ID select jumpers. Your drive should be SCSI device #1 (the A2090 is device 0). However, your unit number should still be UNIT 2. Since the first partition on that drive will be automounted, it MUST be the old filesystem, it can't be FFS. It can be as short as one cylinder long. Don Don
#28616From: Bob RakoskyJan 3, 1989 7:11 PM
Don, I think your message is a bit confusing. You say "Your drive should be SCSI device #1 (the A2090 is device 0)". While this may be technically correct, I know that when setting up SCSI drives on my 2090, the first drive is jumpered as device #0 (and is recognized as DH2:), and the second is jumpered as device #1 (and is DH3:). I don't see how the '2090 as device 0' fits with this empirical evidence. …BobR
#28686From: Don Curtis/SYSOPJan 3, 1989 10:46 PM
Bob, The SCSI host adapter always has SCSI ID of 0. That's why you can only add 7 controllers max while the SCSI spec says it is an 8 device spec. The Host adapter (A2090) is always ID #0. Each controller can have several logical units attached (4 max I believe) with LU numbers LU0 thru LUx./ex In theory, controllers (in this case..the embedded controller) should have switch settings for SCSI ID 1 thru SCSI ID 7. Don
#29309From: PAUL NICHOLSJan 7, 1989 12:43 PM
Thanks for the information. I will try changing my mountlists.