Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!prlb2!lln-cs!sunbim!syteke!jim
From: jim@syteke.UUCP (Jim Sanchez)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Weird Supra/ST-251 problem(HELP)
Message-ID: <119@syteke.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jan 89 12:51:29 GMT
Reply-To: jim@syteke.UUCP (Jim Sanchez)
Organization: Sytek, Inc. - European Support Office
Lines: 38


Since there has been a bit of discussion recently regarding Supra
disks, I thought I'd see if anyone out there in netland has any
suggestions about fixing this problem.

COMPONENTS:
Amiga 1000 w/2M external RAM(ASDG mini-rack), Supra host adaptor,
ST-251 disk and Adaptec 4000A controller in a suplus enclosure. System
is being run in Europe with a step-down transformer and is an NTSC
unit.  Current software is 5.1a but problem was identical with 4.X
as well.  Am using FFS but again problem was identical with SFS.

PROBLEM - When delivered, disk showed 10 bad blocks.  Running
supraformat in the "map on" mode discovers nine but when supraformat
tries to write the bad block data out to the disk it puts up a
requester saying "Cannot Format this harddisk".  The format went
without problems up to that time and works ok if "map off" mode is
used.  I managed to partition my disk so that the first partition has
zero bad blocks but the other two have the rest.  I have tried the
Adaptec on other disks and had it checked where I bought it.  I also
tried the Supra host adaptor on another system and it worked ok there.
If anyone has a fix or even an explanation of what is going on, I
would love to hear it.  I have verified that the Adaptec configuration
is right and there isn't much else to try.  Also, does anyone know
what the weird numbers that supraformat puts out when it is invoked?
Mine puts out something like 20 0 0 0 but when you do a format with
the "map on" option, it puts out LOTS of lines sorta like that one.
Anybody from CMI or Supra want to tell us about this one?

Unless you think this is of general interest, just email me your
suggestions and I'll summarize.

Thanks a million
{sun,hplabs}!sytek!syteke!jim

-- 
Jim Sanchez
Sytek Brussels