Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!att!bellcore!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cbmvax!jesup
From: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: How do I do a Seek using hddisk.device??
Message-ID: <7968@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 21 Sep 89 20:45:08 GMT
References: <20108@gryphon.COM>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 31

In article <20108@gryphon.COM> rickf@pnet02.gryphon.com (Rick Flower) writes:
>I'm looking to write a nice little hard drive part routine and was reading
>through the include files (1.3) and I'll assume that I want to use the
>"scsidisk.i" file and not the "hardblocks.i".. It makes it sound like you talk
>through the hddisk.device which interprets commands into either ST-506
>commands OR SCSI commands ?!?  By the way, I'm using a 2090 controller with an
>ST-506 drive.. What I'd really like to do is be able to read the boot-block
>where the (oops, I meant root-block) information is stored that holds where to
>park the drive heads, etc..  Can anyone help me??  I don't really think that
>it should be any big deal for the most part..

	Welllll,,, it'll work with the A590, A2091, GVP, Hardframe, and a few
others, but it probably won't work well on the A2090 (until we redo the driver).
It does have some sort of scsidisk support, but (for example) I believe it's
impossible to get error returns.  It probably doesn't support some of the
other scsidisk stuff, either.  You can try, and it may work well enough for
your purposes, but I'd advise backing up your disk before doing so for safety.

The A2090 was designed long before the scsidisk standard was standardized (ditto
for RigidDiskBlocks (hardblocks.h).

As for the boot info on the disk, we have not published it's format anywhere,
though I suspect you could figure it out, mostly.  When we redo the driver
(from ground up) it'll switch to RigidDiskBlocks (we encourage ALL hd
controller manufacturers to switch).


-- 
Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering.
{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup  
Common phrase heard at Amiga Devcon '89: "It's in there!"