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From: karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: more than 8 heads?
Summary: If your controller can do it, Xenix will run 15 heads X 1024 cyls
Keywords: hard disk
Message-ID: <3246@ddsw1.MCS.COM>
Date: 5 Apr 89 14:05:36 GMT
References: <7759@killer.Dallas.TX.US>
Reply-To: karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Macro Computer Solutions, Inc., Mundelein, IL
Lines: 25

In article <7759@killer.Dallas.TX.US> tony@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Tony Holden) writes:
>I think I saw this a while back but can't find it anywhere.
>I picked up a Fujitsu 72meg hd. with 754 cyl and *11* heads.
>Badtrk will scan the entire hd., but mkfs will not give me the entire 70meg
>and will also not give a useable filesystem.
>
>Is this because SCO 2.2.3 will not handle more than 8 heads?
>
>Thanks in advance.

Nope.  If your controller is up to it (ie: WD1003-WA2, NOT Wd1002) Xenix
will run with up to 15 heads and 1024 cyls.  The 1024 cyls limitation is due
to SCO deciding to keep the FDISK partition information compatible with
MSDOS.

To get the other heads to work, make sure the flag "control byte" in the
"dkinit" parameters is set to "8".  If it's "0" then you can only access up
to 8 headed drives.

This comes up often enough that I thought it worth posting the response.

--
Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, <well-connected>!ddsw1!karl)
Public Access Data Line: [+1 312 566-8911], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910]
Macro Computer Solutions, Inc.