Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!shelby!agate!fugitive.berkeley.edu!izumi From: izumi@fugitive.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: SCSI formatter Message-ID: <1991Feb14.211244.22379@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 14 Feb 91 21:12:44 GMT References: <12117@helios.TAMU.EDU> <5221@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator) Organization: /etc/organization Lines: 41 In article <5221@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> Pascal Chesnais, Research Specialist, Electronic Publishing Group news@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Remote news user) writes: >> In article <1991Feb13.080850.2311@agate.berkeley.edu> >izumi@fugitive.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) writes: >> >2.0's /usr/etc/sdform, I don't think, will allow you to >> >change "bytes/sector" parameter of SCSI disks. Rory's >> >formatter claims to be able to do this. Going from 512 bytes/sector >> >to 1024 bytes/sector will give you additional 40MB or so of >> >storage. For this function alone, his program is worth it. >> >The doc says it does more. > >Ugh, I hate posting ambiguous information. sdform will format >a Maxtor disk at 1024bytes/sector. I do not know how sdform >decides on this, if there is a way to change it, or if it >adapts itself to the disk. That is probably because your Maxtor disk was formatted at 1024 bytes/sector in the first place. /usr/etc/sdform simply doesn't change it. Running sdform on my Fujitsu M2263SA also kept the original formatting of 512 bytes/sector. As to the usefulness of low-level formatting, it once saved our Maxtor 8760S (from NeXT) which developed MEDIA ERRORs, and it's been running perfectly for nearly a year since the low-level format. Of course, you don't need to do it until you REALLY need it. We also have an XT8760S (Maxtor) and a M2263SA (Fujitsu) formatted at 512 bytes/sector, and I am really anxious to change it to 1024 bytes/sector. Doing this for both drives which are cross NFS mounted will give me additional 60-70MB at least. And I know a lot of people who got third party SCSI hard drives are in this situation. -- Izumi Ohzawa [ $@Bg_78^=;(J ] USMail: University of California, 360 Minor Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 Telephone: (415) 642-6440 Fax: (415) 642-3323 Internet: izumi@violet.berkeley.edu NeXTmail: izumi@pinoko.berkeley.edu