Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bywater!acheron!clarke
From: clarke@acheron.UUCP (Ed Clarke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt
Subject: Re: ESDI disks for RT (AOS 4.3)
Message-ID: <613@acheron.UUCP>
Date: 30 May 89 01:49:54 GMT
References: <3396@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>
Lines: 30

From article <3396@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>, by dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer):
- 
-Since the IBM H310 drive is (I thought) simply a repackaging of the Maxtor
-4380E, I obtained one of these.  I set the jumpers identically to existing
-H310 drives in accordance with the IBM installation manual, and proceeded
-to format the drive.  It gave a write error on each track (sector=1 SCT=34),
-and one which didn't disappear with repeated formats, and the drive gave
-errors trying to run newfs under AOS 4.3.  This was attempted on two
-different RT systems, jumpers inspected by different individuals, and the
-results were identical.  There has been talk of the need for a shortened
-index pulse by the IBM controller, but a Maxtor support person in Austin
-told me that recent drives (which this one is) shouldn't need any modification.

It's not a drive problem, but rather backlevel microcode on your EESDI
board.  The microcode upgrade is available from IBM; I'll see if I can
find the part number in the Ivory Letters tomorrow.  The upgrade consists
of a replacement 27128 on the controller board.

I can't comment on the Maxtor, but we're using LOTS of CDC Wren V drives
here.  You have to use the STANDALONE FORMAT, not something that you can
run under 4bsd.  Shut your system down, reboot and hit cntrl-c when it
comes back up and waits for you to specify what to boot.  This should
give you the stand alone utilities.  REMEMBER that drives start at hd(0),
so you don't format the wrong drive ... that could spoil your whole day.
You're also going to have to enter the bad blocks from the manufacterer
test by hand.  Bletch.

-- 
Ed Clarke
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