Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!dptg!lzsc!hcj
From: hcj@lzsc.ATT.COM (HC Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Supra, Spectre GCR
Summary: use suputl to fix the partition area
Message-ID: <1267@lzsc.ATT.COM>
Date: 6 Feb 90 14:43:42 GMT
References: <5586@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Organization: AT&T BL Middletown/Lincroft NJ USA
Lines: 50

In article <5586@blake.acs.washington.edu>, ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) writes:
> I thought i'd pass on my experience with Supra v3.37 and GCR.
> 
> Upon getting GCR about 2 weeks ago, i reformatted my Quantum 80S
> with Supra 3.37.  According to many sources, including Dave Small
> and Supra themselves, Supra will allow you to create partitions
> greater than 16 MB (i have TOS 1.0) as long as the larger partition(s)
> are not used for GEMDOS.  I proceeded with the following setup 
> under the Supra format utility:
> 
> I watched Supra format the 164,000+ sectors totalling about 84MB.
> 0 bad sectors.. all looked fine.
> 
>  When i came to the "format"
> menu .... i noticed some strange things:  Not only did Spectre
> see the above 7 partitions, but there were partitions 8 and 9
> of 12MB and 6MB respectively.  Partition 7 (I:\) still showed

Here are some "gotchas".

First, as far a SUPRA and Spectre are concerned, there are 12 partitions
on a disk.  All of the information is kept in sector 0.  It sounds as
if you have corruption in some of the areas.
Use suputl.prg to set to 0 the partitions that done exist.
I have noticed that some garbage values prevent suputl from doing this.
Then use supedit.prg to (CAREFULLY) set the partitions to 0.

Second. there are two kinds of disk drives.  SCSI drives take care of
defective areas automatically.  All other drives require that the formatter
handle the problem.  Most (all?) SUPRA controllers contain an Adaptec
4000 (MFM) or 4070 (RLL) controller.  
Adaptec controllers EXPECT to be told the defect list for the disk.
Adaptec then makes these sectors disappear; they are not numbered or accessable.
===== What follows is My Opinion, not SUPRA's =====
Supra's formatter, hdx, does not support this mode in the Adaptec.
Instead, SUPRA (and ICD and ATARI) format all sectors, then try to map the
bad ones out logically.  In TOS, this is done by gathering them together in
an invisible file.
This does not help Spectre or MINIX at all!
Of course, If you do not have the bad block list for your drive you have
a problem.  Then you really need to buy the Adaptec manual ($5.00).
===================================================
This is why I wrote my own formatter (minihdx.prg, and partitioner (mkfs.prg).
These are available if you can send me EMAIL.

Howard C. Johnson
ATT Bell Labs
=====NEW address====
att!lzsc!hcj
hcj@lzsc.att.com