Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:33235 comp.periphs:2025 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!blew From: blew@tc.fluke.COM (Bob Lewandowski) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.periphs Subject: Help !! Problem with SCSI hard drive in Everex STEP. Keywords: SCSI, Everex, Adaptec, help! Message-ID: <10388@fluke.COM> Date: 15 Aug 89 18:34:19 GMT Sender: news@tc.fluke.COM Distribution: na Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA Lines: 58 Hi! I am having major problems putting an Everex STEP 386/20 system together using a Imprimis/CDC SCSI interface hard drive and an Adaptec SCSI controller. The drive is a Wren V half-height, Model 94221-190 (s/n 3007861) which is spec'ed to be 190 Mbytes formatted (209 Mbytes unformatted). I am using an Adaptec 1542A (date code ? 8923 ) controller. The bios chip on the Adaptec is labeled 420-403-00A and the firmware encoder chip is 420-504-00C E7BC. The problems occur during formatting, if the hard disk is formatted in the Everex machine everything seems to proceed OK, except that it formats out to about 177 Mbytes instead of 190. DIR appears to be correct, but CHKDSK indicates more than 180 lost clusters and the number of lost clusters increases if you re-run CHKDSK. If CHKDSK is allowed to 'fixup' the disk it produces 177 Mbytes of trash files. Writes or reads to the disk don't work at all. The system won't boot from the hard disk either. If the drive and the controller are put in a 286 AT clone the drive can be formatted correctly but only to 177 Mbytes again. It works OK in the 286 and can be moved to the Everex 386 where it will boot the system and seems to function normally. Attempting to re-format in the Everex produces the same result as described above. Another curious thing about the drive is that CoreTest indicates that the average access time is about 22 mS and the track-to-track is about 8 mS. The 94221 is supposed to be 18 mS and 4 mS. This is the second CDC drive in this fiasco, the first one would spin up but wouldn't respond at all. Is this a problem with CoreTest and a SCSI drive or is it the real performance ? All the particpating manufacturers point to the others and say: "It's their problem !" Right now it's my problem and its now into the third month! Anyone out there been through this ?? How about ANY suggestions ?? Is there perchance a SCSI controller the has good speed and actually works in an Everex ? CDC was chosen for it's legendary reliability, and a SCSI interface and the Adaptec controller were chosen in the hope of achiving high performance ! Right about now I would almost settle for ANY performance! Was SCSI (the wave of the future) the wrong choice ? Is there hope for this mess or should I try to find a buyer for the whole pile ?!? B-) One last binder, the video card is a Video-7 VRAM. Am I in for more surprises when and if I get the whole thing screwed together and try to shadow bios and video ? How about disk caching utilities ?? Will they work in this system ? Any and all suggestions gratefully accepted !! Many thanks in advance. ------Bob -- Bob Lewandowski Domain: blew@tc.fluke.COM Voice: (206) 347-6100, Ext. 5368 UUCP: {microsof,sun}!fluke!blew U S nail: John Fluke Mfg. Co. / P.O. Box C9090 / MS 273G / Everett WA 98206