Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga.hardware:6722 comp.periphs.scsi:2001 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!helios!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!seismo!uunet!samsung!munnari.oz.au!metro!dmssyd.syd.dms.CSIRO.AU!hades!andrewl From: andrewl@hades.ausonics.oz.au (Andrew J Lockwood) Newsgroups: aus.computers.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.hardware,comp.periphs.scsi Subject: Amiga (A590) <-> Seagate ST225N help needed. Message-ID: <1991Feb28.040101.18591@hades.ausonics.oz.au> Date: 28 Feb 91 04:01:01 GMT Organization: Ausonics Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia Lines: 103 I need a little help getting a Seagate ST225N 20MB SCSI hard disk working with the A590. The problem is: I can low level format the drive, partition and FFS format without to much trouble. Then if I copy files to the Seagate I will eventually get a R/W error no 42. The drive doc says: "Defect map overflow: This error indicates that the total number of defective sectors to be formatted exceeds the table size." If I then run fixdisk and scan all blocks it finds that after some 30 or so cylinders the following 600 cylinders all have sector 0 defective with the error 42. The verify option in HDToolbox sends commands the Seagate thinks are invalid. The error explaination from the Seagate manual is: "Invalid Command: This error indicates that the received command byte is illegal or not implemented" When I read the configuration from the drive I get: Cyl : 613 Heads: 1 Blocks per Track: 68 ( Amiga assumes this for me !) The drive doc says: Cyl : 615 Heads: 4 Blocks per Track: 17 for 512 Byte block If I use the default cyl/heads/blocks I end up with approx 600 bad sectors ( fixdisk ). If I use the 4 heads 17 blocks configuration fixdisk reports every combination of cyl 33-613 head 0-3 sec 0 as bad. This amounts to over 2000 bad blocks for this config as opposed to the default. What's going on? I have run the Seagate "OFFLINE VERIFICATION PROGRAM" which is built into the drive and tests: 1 Read/Write verification on special test cylinder 2 Media scan of user data area 3 Seek Test These tests are cycled through ten times. The drive passes this test. I phoned the Seagate Australian distributors (Y-Micro) who claim that the drive should be O.K. I have connected the Seagate to the A590 internal SCSI 50 pin connector. CBM Sydney Consumer Support say this is O.K. to do. The 20MB 3.5 " ST506 disk inside the A590 works fine. The seagate has termination resistors installed and is the only device on the bus apart from the A590. The system is a normal A500 + A590 ( 20MB WD + 2MB RAM ) + A501 .5 MB RAM + 3.5" CA Ext Floppy + 5.25 " floppy + phillips monitor. The Seagate is powered by a 288 Watt Switching power supply and +12V & +5V have less than 10 mv ripple ( measured with a Fluke 77 DVM ). The Seagate was bought second hand off the net from a guy (Paul are you listening 8-( ) who showed me it working on a MAC. I don't know how old it is. I have tried to map out bad blocks by hand ( since the verify doesn't work). This can be used with limited success. After specifing 100 or so bad blocks a limit is reached after which there is no more space for system files on the Seagate. If I make a partition in the region covered by the bad blocks mapped out, I can use this with no troubles. This seems to suggest that the bad blocks are real and the seagate self test is lieing to me ( but then there is the difference between the number of bad blocks with the different configurations which suggests the Amiga is lieing to me????) My questions are: 1/ What is the significance of the Seagate self test? Does it really indicate that the drive is O.K.? Does it indicate that there are no bad block that can't be slipped automatically? (Fixdisk is only READING blocks as this self test claims to do). 2/ Why do the different head/cly/sector configurations work at all and why does one result in 4 times the number of bad blocks. 3/ Does anyone use a Seagate ST225N connected to the A590? Any problems? 4/ If my hard disk really does have 4 radial scratches on every surface, is it possible to map out more than 100 or so bad sectors. I need at least 6 times the normal space. 5/ Is there a program which will scan a filesystem and write a file containing all the bad blocks effectively mapping them out? 6/ Do I need some special termination at the A590 end? The cable is 1m long. Any comments please reply via EMail to andrewl@hades.ausonics.oz.au as I don't receive many newsgroups anymore. Thanks, Andrew Lockwood -- __ _____ __ Andrew Lockwood andrewl@witzend.ausonics.oz.au / ) / / Ausonics Pty. Ltd. Ph /61/2/428 6452 /--/ / / 16 Mars Rd, Lane Cove. NSW. 2066. Australia / ( o (__/ o _/___) o #define WEEK_DAY SATURDAY