Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!anne
From: anne@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Anneliese Lilje)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT's,Disks and Magic
Message-ID: <1991Apr19.174923.4113@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 19 Apr 91 17:49:23 GMT
References: > <1991Apr10.031342.27656@dgbt.doc.ca> <7952@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Distribution: comp
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 25

I am interested...

When my NeXT Cube boots, it looks for all it's SCSI devices,
locates them and then reports back information about the device.

For example...

We have an Andataco 1.2 GByte SCSI drive (Wren VII). When it 
boots it displays something like:

Name of Disk and Model Number, as sd0 at sc0 target 1 lun 0

There is NO disktab entry for this drive on my system (yet).

So what magical thing does the NeXT do to grab this information?

Also, when I use build disk on the drive, it seems to understand the
information above and then makes some magic assumptions about
disk geometry when it formats the disk. Could someone explain to me 
HOW it makes these assumptions about disk geometry.

Please send e-mail if possible:

anne@trixie.caltech.edu