Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!njin!limonce From: limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: URGENT hard disk questions. Message-ID: Date: 25 Dec 88 05:36:30 GMT References: <3885@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <9800@gryphon.COM> <5526@cbmvax.UUCP> Organization: NJ InterCampus Network, New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 44 In article <5526@cbmvax.UUCP> jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) writes: > In article <9800@gryphon.COM> jdow@gryphon.COM (J. Dow) writes: > >In article <3885@pt.cs.cmu.edu> mjw@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Michael Witbrock) writes: > >>Could some one tell me what the appropriate Blocks per track and Surfaces and > >>Interleave numbers are for a ST277N SCSI drive. > ... > >>what does it mean when it says, halfway through a format, > >>"format failed, can't open device." (which is patently untrue, since it > >>already has to format the other tracks on the partition), and why should this > >>happen at different cylinders at different trys.) > > Are you sure it didn't say "can't open handler"? No, I've seen that error when I first got my GVP 2000/2-0. The problem was that I couldn't re-prep the drive without giving an UNPREP command first. Otherwise I would get that error. Strange? Yes. How did I give that UNPREP command? I don't remember. I think it was 1> prep {some options} UNPREP How did I find this? Well, it only took about an hour to search out all their scripts to find where it was giving me that error. Then I think I actually found the executable that gave the error and I (get this!) did a TYPE OPT H to see if there was any helpful text. I think I also did something like "PREP ?" to see all the possible options. Of course, it wouldn't accept the ones I wanted to give it so I had to play around a little. Yes, I did check the manual and I couldn't find anything about re-preping a drive. Oh well. Call me a fool. (By the way, I absolutely love the GVP card. Installation was a snap. I litterally just clicked a XIcon scripts and it did all the work. My problem was that I wanted to muck-around :-) Merry Christmas, (Hey! Look! There's Santa! ...and he's bringing me a copy of A-Talk III+!) -Tom -- Tom Limoncelli Drew University Madison NJ 201-408-5389 tlimonce@drunivac.Bitnet limonce@pilot.njin.net "Fences make good neighbors" -Frost "I want an MMU" -Me Standard disclaimer? No, we're still on the dpANS disclaimer.