Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:38304 comp.unix.xenix:8575 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rls!randy From: randy@rls.UUCP (Randall L. Smith) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.unix.xenix Subject: Re: MAXTOR XT4170 with WD1007 Controller (& SpeedStore) Summary: Sorry, thats just not the problem. Keywords: MAXTOR XT4170 WD1007 Message-ID: <10373@rls.UUCP> Date: 16 Nov 89 05:01:04 GMT References: <1187@otc.otca.oz> Organization: The Internet Lines: 70 In article <1187@otc.otca.oz>, ronb@otc.otca.oz (Ron Barrett) writes: > Is anyone using a WD1007 with a MAXTOR XT4170 hard disk? Im using it > in an AST 386 running XENIX 2.3.1. I have this exact configuration except System V on an Intel 386. It works fine. Actually excellent, and has done so since last January. > The basic problem is that the system locks up whilst accessing the > harddisk. Apparently the WD ESDI controller doesn't work all that > well with a hard disk with more than 1024 cyclinders. Well, thats totally inaccurate. The WD-1007 ESDI supports *much* larger drives than the puny 180MB, 14ms Maxtor. I don't know how long you've had this configuration or if it has been up more than a few minutes. I suspect the latter and think you tried to out-think the controller. In my first run-in, I did. With the WD-1007 too much knowledge is dangerous. You want to let the controller BIOS do the configuration and the formatting. The easiest way I found was to boot Dos from a flop and use debug. With debug you; debug - G=C800:5 and you will be in touch with the (menu driven) gods of the controller. I presume you've already been there. Apparently you pumped the actual heads, cylinders and sectors/track in the configuration. This is death. The way the WD-1007 family works is they compute the offset into extended ranges of the disk. I do not understand is how do all the blocks then appear with chkdsk or df -t? Anyway, just take the default conflaguration which will appear strange and totally wrong. As I recall, there are three choices. One is for 17 sectors/track (spt), 34 spt and 63 spt. The head count will be many times more than true and the spt and cylinders way off. Thats good. Somehow by multiplying them together you get the actual surface area equivalence for the drive. For a drive with more than 1024 cylinders (as is XT4170E) use the selection with 63 sectors/track. The real bummer is you have to *manually* enter all the defect list. Grrrr. WD says they will fix this eventually. It's really unthinkable they didn't provide that from day one. Oh well. > The dealer told me about a program called SpeedStore from Storage > Dimension that is supposed to fix the problem? *Dos dealer flame ON* This is typical of most PC dealers. They know hardware (sort of) and Dos. The product they recommended to you runs under Dos and has drivers for Dos to access the extended range that only Dos can't reach. There will be a *mint* to be made in Unix support because these dealers are too stoopid (intentional spelling) to get any Unix experience. Even rudimentary knowledge that Dos crap don't run under Unix. Duh. *Dos dealer flame OFF* Maybe I had too much coffee today.:-} Well, hope this helps, Ron and anyone else suffering this problem as I've seen a number of very astute individuals making this apparently common mistake. Right, Bill? :-) Cheers! - randy Usenet: randy@rls.uucp Bangpath: ...!osu-cis!rls!randy Internet: rls!randy@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu