| Title: | AMIGA NOTES |
| Notice: | Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2 |
| Moderator: | HYDRA::MOORE |
| Created: | Sat Apr 26 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Wed Feb 05 1992 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 5378 |
| Total number of notes: | 38326 |
I just bought and installed a Microbotics Hardframe and 40 meg Quantum
drive. I can't seem to get it set up to work correctly and hope some
one out there has had this problem and corrected it.
My first attempt I basically took the defaults offered by HDPrep. Here
are some of the key entries:
Number of Disk Cylinders [834]:
Number of Disk Heads [3]:
Number of Sector/Track [32]:
Allocation Range for Partitions, (seems like this should have)
usable blocks/cylinder [98]: (been 96. 3 * 32 )
My intent was to set up a small first partition and then two partitions
of approx. 20 meg. each. During partition set up these where some of
the key default settings.
Logical Number of Drive Heads [1]:
Logical Blocks per Track [98]:
Partition Starting Cylinder [1]:
Partition Ending Cylinder [833]: 33 <-- my entry
After this I followed all the instructions regarding formatting,
setting up startup-sequence and copying WorkBench to the first
partition. When I was all done with this I was able to autoboot from
the first partition. The problem started when I tried to transfer some
more files to the first partition from the Extras disk. I got a disk
corruption error key 3234 out of range. ( this just happens to be #cyl
* #block/track (33 * 98) not sure if this is important. ) The
partition is only about 60% full at the time of the error. I was sure
that the hard disk was OK (made it one big partition and formatted
without the quick qualifier.) so I did an experiment and made several
partitions all of them 33 cylinders. They all failed with the same
exact error.
I then called Microbotics Technical Support (Mike) and was told I was
using an old version of HDPrep. He gave me some new numbers to use that
would supposedly take full advantage of the Quantum Drive. They are:
Number of Disk Cylinders [739]:
Number of Disk Heads [3]:
Number of Sector/Track [37]:
Allocation Range for Partitions,
usable blocks/cylinder [111]:
Again my intent was to set up a small first partition and then two
partitions of approx. 20 meg. each. During partition set up these
where some of the key settings.
Logical Number of Drive Heads [3]:
Logical Blocks per Track [37]:
Partition Starting Cylinder [1]:
Partition Ending Cylinder [738]: 30 <-- my entry
Ended up with the same problem only this time the key was 3330. (30 *
111)
Called Mike again, and have to hand it to him, he was already working
on the problem using my original values and had duplicated the problem.
He was also able to duplicate it using the the values he had given me
and using my 30 cylinder partition. For now he is stumped but working
on it.
In the mean time can anyone out there help or give me some suggestions.
Thanks in advance,
Randy
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3759.1 | Update-can fill up partition 2 okay. | CSC32::R_RASH | Tue May 08 1990 14:16 | 7 | |
Just a quick update. I did some more experimenting using the numbers
given to me by Microbotics and setting up partition one with 30
cylinders, partition two and three with 354 cylinders each. I still
can't fill up partition one without getting the key 3330 out of range
but I can fill up partition 2 with no problem.
Randy
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| 3759.2 | not much help but... | HPSTEK::SENNA | Fri May 11 1990 10:01 | 14 | |
Randy,
Just a little FYI... I have delt with several of the hardframe
and quantums setups. One thing I have noticed is that the hardframe
has been solid. I have come across bad drives several times right
out of the box. Either it hangs or more recently one that exhibits this
same symtom you are seeing. One thing I have never understood is how
scsi takes care of bad spots. The person who has this drive just
started getting this error after 4 months of using the drive. I would
seriously consider returning it for another...maybe you could verify
your setup using someone elses drive first. One thing nice about st506
type drives is you can play with bad block lists and such!
Tom_who_is_trying_to_catch_up_on_notes_after_3_months!
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| 3759.3 | Can I Pick Numbers, or What! | CSC32::R_RASH | Fri May 11 1990 12:17 | 47 | |
Tom,
Thanks for you input. I'm convinced that there is nothing wrong with
my drive, for the following reasons.
1. Microbotics can reproduce my problem on their setup. My last call to
them regarding a possible resolution wasn't very good. Basically it
boiled down to don't call us we'll call you. I plan on writing a
letter. Don't get me wrong, I'm convinced they have a very good
product.
2. I can make multiple partitions of 30 cylinders (using the latest
parameters from Microbotics, or 33 cylinders using the old parameters)
and get the exact same key failure in each of them as I fill them up.
Here is my final set up and observations:
Number of Disk Cylinders = 739
Number of Disk Heads = 3
Number of Sec/Track = 37
Allocation Range for
Partitions,usable blks/cyl= 111
First Partition cyl. 1 - 29 ( 29 cylinders)(cyl. 0 = HardBlock)
Second Partition cyl. 30 - 384 (355 cylinders)
Third Partition cyl. 385 - 738 (354 cylinders)
To arrive at this I ran several test making partitions of the following
sizes: 25, 29, 40, 35, and 31 cylinders. After creating the partitions
I copied files to the partition until it was full. All of them worked
without getting any "key out of range" errors. I re-tried 30 cylinders
one last time and got the same error as before. (Key 3330 out of range.
As I've stated before, this is #cyl(30) * #blocks/cyl.(111). Still not
sure if that is relevant.)
I finally set my disk up as I stated above and then proceeded to fill
up each of the partitions until they were full. It worked fine, so I
reformatted all the partitions and finally started loading it with
programs. This was two days ago and so far everything is working fine.
I received on off-line reply to my note from Frank Gatulis regarding a
friend who was having a similar problem using a 105mb Quantum, trying
to set up a 5M partition. Hope to hear from him (Franks friend) when
he gets back off vacation. Will keep you posted if I hear from
Microbotics.
Randy
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