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From: ned@pebbles.cad.mcc.com (Ned Nowotny)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: 3B1/7300: iv does not support more than 1024 cylinders
Message-ID: <1976@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM>
Date: 28 Jul 89 16:03:58 GMT
References: <1942@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM> <930@icus.islp.ny.us>
Sender: news@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM
Reply-To: ned%cad@MCC.COM (Ned Nowotny)
Distribution: usa
Organization: MCC CAD Program, Austin, TX
Lines: 46

In article <930@icus.islp.ny.us> lenny@icus.islp.ny.us (Lenny Tropiano) writes:
=>In article <1942@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM> ned%cad@MCC.COM (CME Ned Nowotny) writes:
=>...
=>|>Well, it turns out that iv, just like the stock s4diag, has the 1024
=>|>cylinder limit of the stock hardware hard coded.  I was able to get
=>|>iv to try a format of my (one and only) hard disk by creating a
=>|>floppy disk boot file system with the iv program included, making a
=>|>link of /dev/rfp000 to /dev/rhd, and preparing a description file
=>|>for my disk.  The link allowed me to try and format the hard disk
=>|>without getting the complaint that iv will not format the hard disk.
=>|>However, iv refused to format the disk when it encountered the 1170
=>|>cylinder entry in my description file.
=>|>
=>As far as I can tell formatting >1024 cylinders with the iv command should
=>work, only on the second drive.  iv will not let you format anything
=>with the "type" description line in the description file being "HD".  It
=>just will come back with the message:
=>
=>	iv: cannot reformat Winchester disk.
=>
=>Now if you changed that line to "HD2 or SY" it might work provided you
=>gave slice 0 of the raw disk drive 1.   The iv program doesn't look
=>at the device name (ie. /dev/rfp000), but it looks at the major/minor number
=>and how you specify the "type" in the description file.

You may well be right about the test of the major and minor numbers of the
device.  I did not attempt all possible permutations.  In particular, I did
not experiment with 1024 cylinders to see if I got the message you list above.

However, I did get a message with the technique I described complaining that
my description file wanted iv to format more than 1024 cylinders.  (While I
do not recall the exact wording, it was very clear what it was complaining
about.  Specifically, it referenced the number of cylinders and the fact that
I wanted it to format more than 1024.)  Whatever else, I did not get:

       iv: cannot reformat Winchester disk

Or anything like it.

Please note, this is only meant to be informative.  I do appreciate your
greater knowledge of the vagaries of the 3B1/7300.

Ned Nowotny, MCC CAD Program, Box 200195, Austin, TX  78720  Ph: (512) 338-3715
ARPA: ned@mcc.com                   UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!milano!cadillac!ned
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