| 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 |
Here is a list of problems I encountered when installing a ICD
Advantage 2000 SCSI Host Adapter. This is on a REV 6.2 Amiga 2000,
WB ver 1.3.2, and Advantage formatter version 1.3. The drives are a
Miniscride 20mb SCSI, Adaptec 4000A with a ST4051 and a ST225, and a
Adaptec 4070 with a ST227R. These problems might be peculare to my
system but I thought it might help someone else in the future. All
the problems except the first occured on a Bare bones system.
The first problem was an interaction problem between the ProRamm
2000 and the Advantage 2000. The ProRamm needs to be in a slot
closer to the CPU than the Advantage 2000. If not a problem
develops on a reboot via Crtl-Amiga-Amiga. What should happen is on
a reboot if you hold the left mouse button down the system should
ignore any bootable hard disk partiions and look for a bootable
floppy in DF0: If it does not find one then it should present the
Insert Work Bench screen. This did not happen, you could hear the
DF0: floppy click but all you get is a blank screen. If you had a
bootable floppy or inserted one it appears to boot from the floppy
but again no screen.
The second problem shows up only if you are trying to format a
previously unmountable disk. I would think this is a valid condition.
The Advantage 2000 loads the driver into memory and automounts all
disk/partiions that are mountable. During the partiion phase after it
partitions the drive it writes files to the disk if you are making it
bootable and it has not previoulsy been mountable the formatter software
will GURU with a 0000004.0204908. The workaround is to quickly do a
format/partition and then reboot to get the controller to automount the
partition. From then on you will be able to format and partition the
drive. Of course since it crashes on the first try I guess you can say
this is automatic.
The third problem also centers around new unmountable drives.
During the partition phase you are asked to enter known bad spots.
This can be gotten from the defect table on the drive case. If the
drive has not been previously partitioned then if you click anywhere
in the Bad Block Entry window but on the OK gadget (thus aborting
the entry window) then the Amiga will GURU rather hard. With a
00000004.FC1696, or 84038003.FC1696, or a 0000004.207970. Again the
workaround is to do a quick format/partition and reboot the Amiga.
To get the drive to automount. This is not "Automatic" as in the
above problem since the Amiga crashes before any partitioning is done.
The forth problem in my opinion is the most severe. I have one
drive the ST4051 it has 9 bad spots in the drive defect table from the
manufacturer. When it was on my A500 /Cltd SCSI500 it formatted and
picked up two more. But during the ICD partition phase the formatter
would hang. The Adaptec light would stay on the Drive light would stay
on and the DMA light from the SCSI host would go out. You would be
forced to reboot. Eventually after much fumbling around I placed the
drive back on the A500 and formatted only to find two more bad spots
had developed not bad for three years. Back on the 2000 I entered these
into the Bad Spot Table and the drive formatted ok. I have filled the
drive up a couple of times and used DIFF and DISKCHK to verify the
surface and it seems OK. But the ICD Advantage 2000 cannot handle
bad spots that the CLtd SCSI500 rev 2.6 formatter can. What is
worse before I mapped the other two spots I was trying to partition
without any sort of verification. I was busy copying a file from
the ST4051 to the ST227R and the ST4051 locked up. On reboot the
ST277R would not validate. DiskDoctor and DiskSalv both could not
correct the problem I was forced to repartition the ST227R. This
does not sound good for error handling on the icddisk.device.
Workaround find another controller to format and map any bad spots.
then enter this information when you format with the Advantage 2000
formatter. Keep real good backups.
Also the driver is not compatable with the Amiga Format command. Is
this normal for all CA RDB compatable SCSI hosts?
Of course I called ICD with this info and was told "You have bad
cables" I guess mapping out those two new bad spots fixed the cables
right! And the Cltd SCSI500 didn't mind the cables. I wrote ICD a
nice four page letter.
The Quarter Back, Bad Spot Utility looks good but I would assume the
driver for the disk needs to be able to do more with a disk error
besides hang. Any opinions on this?
After all this the Advantage 2000 is very fast. Of course I used to
have a A500 with Cltd SCSI 500 which was not known for its speed.
Alan
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4077.1 | Version 2.10 of the Formatter available | CX3PT3::WSC017::A_ANDERSON | CSC32::A_Anderson NSU/VAX DTN 592-4170 | Sun Sep 15 1991 17:10 | 61 |
I dialed into ICD's BBS yesterday and they had a new version of their
Formatter available. Version 2.10 Also includes drivers for Amax. The
formatter is much more stable than 1.3. It was able to locate a bad
spot and map it out, with out hanging. Before even when entered into the
bad spot tabelit would still hang. Yesterday for the first time I was able
to do an Extensive check of my ST225 (running as a ST238) and my ST4051.
Since the software has copyright notices and nothing that says it is
freely distributable I do not think it is appropiate to upload it to
the Net. But the file name is NEW210.LZH and it is 80615 bytes in
size, it only takes six minutes at 2400 baud. All you have to do is
call their BBS and register for 30 minutes of down load time.
You still cannot Format with the Amiga Dos Format command and Cross dos
gets a -3 error (command not supported). But since IBeM demmo runs at
a .4 Xt Per norton I will stick with the bridge board.
The Content.TXT file from the NEW210.LZH:
This file contains the latest V2.10 Softaware & Drivers (Including
ICDFMT.DAT) that are on the ICD_Format disk (Excluding the Workbench
files). These files are:
icddisk.device --- 13,016 Bytes (device driver for the AD-SCSI 2000 &
2080)
icddiskide.device --- 14,620 Bytes (device driver for the AD-IDE series)
ICDFMT.DAT --- 5,635 bytes (added drive support for Fijitsu & Conner
drives)
icddiskide.amhd --- 6,624 Bytes (AMAXII driver for AD-IDE)
icddisk.amhd --- 3,740 (AMAXII driver for AD-SCSI 2000 & 2080)
Complete package including formatter & drivers available as:
New210.LZH -- All ICD Harddisk utilities
When Installing the drivers, a copy should be made to both the DEVS:
directory AND to the Root directory of the disk you are booting the
formatter from.
AMAXII drivers need to be in your DEVS: directory if you are using AMAXII.
(SEE the readme file for more info on AMAXII)
Note: Do not use the 'FORMAT' Option on the ICD_Formatter if you are
using the AD-IDE. This is because the IDE drives contain special low-level
information containg bad-sector tables & such. Fomatting the drive might
destroy this data. The proper procedure is to first run the 'ideconfig'
program, then enter the 'ICD_Formatter', select your partitions, & click
on 'PARTITION'. Thats it!
If you have any problems installing the software or configuring your
drives, call ICD Tech support at (815)-968-2228 between the hours of 8:00
AM to 5:00 PM Central Standard Time.
File(s) Posted on ICD BBS, August 27th, 1991
| |||||
| 4077.2 | ICD Advantage ROM V2.20 | CX3PT2::WSC017::A_ANDERSON | CSC32::A_Anderson NSU/VAX DTN 592-4170 | Mon Dec 16 1991 11:33 | 54 |
I just went through a 1.3 to 2.04 upgrade. It went very smooth and I only
got into trouble a few weeks later when I was messing with mounting a Disk
marked as Skip. I placed a copy of the ICDDISK.DEVICE on the disk and WB
2.04 would no longer load. ICD's method of removing all references to
L:FastFilesystem is to delete (rename) ICDDISK.DEVICE and resave the partition
data to the Disk. I had done this by accident at first and then later noticed
that I did not have the ICDDISK.DEVICE and copied to my hard disk partition.
This is known as shooting your self in the FastFileSystem.
I was running ROM version 1.6. This has a few quirks. Number one being the
Amiga DOS Format program does not work. Also I have never been able to mount
a disk with the Mount command after marking it as Skip under the Formatter
program.
Also with the left and right mouse button down under KS 2.04 you should see
a boot menu of all autoconfigured devices. All I could see was the floppies
DF0 and DF2. Without holding the mouse buttons down the Advantage 2000 would
boot and automount all partitions as necessary. This is the only way to tell
if you have the latest ROM version. Under 2.0 Reset while holding both mouse
buttons down if you do not see any Automounted disk partitions then you have
an old ROM. Under 1.3 you need to boot the formatter floppy while holding
both mouse buttons down, and the ICDDISK.DEVICE deleted (renamed would be
better) forcing the ICDDISK.DEVICE in ROM to be used. You will not be able to
identify any SCSI devices on the bus with the old ROM, the New 2.20 ROM will
Identify the drives on the BUS.
I ordered the ROM upgrade $7.50 and a new formatter disk another $7.50. The
current rom version is 2.20 and fixes the above problems. It is also a lot
more tolorant of bad spots during the format of a disk. I have not had the
bad luck of getting a disk read error so I cannot tell if it works better
under those conditions then before. But I do know that under 1.6 a read
error was never recoverable. See the base note for more details.
Now under 2.04 when I reset with the Left and right mouse buttons down I see
a boot menu that includes both floppies and all automounted Hard Disk partions.
Also I can set a partition as Skip and mount it with the mount command. I
have to use the L:FastFileSystem that comes with the WB2.0 install floppy
and GLOBVEV= -1. With out those I get a "cannot obtain information for drive".
Under WB2.04 you need to remove all references to the L: and GLOBVEC to
utilize the ROM version of the FastFileSystem.
The L:FasTFilesystem is a 2.0 version but with out some of the features of the
ROM version. It is outlined in the WB 2.04 documentation.
I am also able to use Cross Dos on a partition. I simply change the File
system to L:MsDosFileSystem and the Dos type to what Cross dos requires and
Mformat the drive. I am currently looking into Consultrons Ambassador
upgrade to see if I can add some speed to my Bridge board's disk access.
PS. The supposed cable problem has been fixed by the ROM upgrade. Amazing
how these thing work them selves out.
| |||||