Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    George,
    	I only have experiance with my GVP scsi drive, so I may not have 
    a lot to offer. My thoughts are that you may be able to resolve your
    problem by doing a low level format, before you do the AmigaDos format.
    I am not sure if this can be done on a partition, but my gut feeling
    is it cannot. However it may be the only way out. My second thought is
    to use quarterback tools to check the disk. It has the ability to 
    check for bad spots,and remap. This would have been better done before
    your attempts to reformat however. Another concern is that after you 
    reformat,and do get everything fixed, is it possable to reintroduce the
    problem when you restore the files to the partition. If this happens
    I'd use Quarterback tools to find,and delete the offending file.
    							bill

    RE: .1
    
    I have backed up the entire hard drive so, although it obviously
    wouldn't have been my first choice, I am able to do a low-level 
    format.  My question is simply how?  Is there a utility I should 
    have and dont?  Is there a PD formatter?
    
    Thanks,
    George
    

    I have a similar configuration (A2090A/scsi HD) and you should've
    got the hard disk install diskette/manual that goes with the
    A2090A.  The program, if it was installed properly shoud've been
    moved to your /c directory and running PREP should guide you to
    every steps of "low formatting your hard disk".  
    Although it goes tru every cylinder and "SEEMS" to low level
    format I am not quite sure it does it.  One thing sure though,
    it will zero your disk, and you will have to reformat every
    partitions that you have (high level format).
    
    B.T.W. I don't know about your problem, but I've had a similar
    bug using a different program that "gurued" the 68000 while an
    other task was writing on the disk and I only had to "high level"
    format that partition to restore the whole disk.
    To my knowledge, (I am not expert, just experience) a software
    bug/crash or whatever the CPU is doing CANNOT damage the SCSI
    low level format.  The only thing that can damage it is wear,
    or harware problem. 
    
    Vince.  

    Sorry, it's me again...
    
    I forgot to mention, I also had a c/format problem,
    I am using WB 1.3.2 (who's using a new version of format)
    I had to go back to WB 1.3 (not .2) to get the format program
    running.  This is probably your bug...
    
    I just remembered a little too late.
    
    Vince.
    

    And if you use the older format (1.3.0), there is a switch
    that will just re-initialize without re-formating the whole
    partition, it saves quite some time, as the format is OK,
    the problem is in the initialization...
    I forgot the switch but I think it's "fast" or something close
    to that. The WB1.3 book should tell you precisely.
    
    Vince,
    

    re:.4  
    
    I agree, that one bit me with the hardframe.  I wasn't sure where
    the new format command came from, but the old 1.3 format worked
    fine.  And yes, I did install wb 1.3.2, so that could be it (never
    tracked down where it came from, just was glad to get rid of it).
    
    Dave
    

Buy Quarterback Tools.  I had a similar problem with my hard drive.  It even had
problems with a low level format.  I ran Quarterback Tools on it and it fixed
everything.  It is the only way to fix validation problems without having to
reformat, too. 


Worth every penny.

Randy

    RE: .4 (Vince)
    
    T H A N K   Y O U   !  !  !  !
    :-)
    
    I wen't back to the V1.3 distribution kit and the FORMAT worked great!
    I then restored the backup and the drive is now fully working!  I cant
    thank you enough as I would have never thought to drop a rev to the old
    FORMAT and, after the low-level re-format, if V1.3.2 failed again I 
    would have been out of options.
    
    On QUARTERBACK TOOLS, I read the box but at the time only had so much 
    money (still do) and chose to buy QUARTERBACK as I had no fast and
    reliable backup utility (been using SDbackup and MRbackup and I was
    scared by the current potential bugs in MRbackup -- QUARTERBACK seems
    to have a great success record so I bought it).  It would have been 
    easier but by buying QUARTERBACK I got a tool I can use always instead
    of an emergency recovery tool I (hopefully) wouldn't soon need again.
    
    Anyway, thanks to Vince and all others who responded as this was a
    trying time that I am glad is over.
    
    Again,
    T H A N K   Y O U ,  A L L   ! ! ! 
    
    George
    
    

    It's me again with another format problem...
    
    I just increased my memory to 3Mb by adding an ASDG 2Mb board.  I did 
    this as I was working with TeX/LaTeX (PasTex distribution) and I had
    a guru when I upped my TeX configs to allow me to use some of the 
    memory.  Sure enough, when I got back the disk wouldn't validate and
    it also reported a "Read/Write Error" as well as "Key Not Set" errors.
    
    Fearing for my software but, unlike before in .0 not being able to read
    anything on the disk, I tried DISKDOCTOR.  This did the trick.  The
    disk came back named "Lazarus:" and most of my files were there.  The
    DISKDOCTOR program reported about 10 "Key Not Set" errors then
    completed.  So, I used QUARTERBACK and backed the Lazarus: disk onto
    floppys and then set about re-FORMATting.
    
    Now, when I type the FORMAT command (using AmigaDOS V1.3.0 FORMAT),
    the machine Guru's but first turns the upper-left hand corner of the
    screen to the background color as though it wanted to put up a
    requester but failed in the middle.  The guru is:
    
    		#00000004.0021A3FD
    
    The disk is now reporting as "Not a DOS disk" in the INFO line.  And
    still one more, when I just MOUNT the disk sometimes there is a slight
    pause AFTER the successful mount and then the system will crash again
    with the Guru:
    
    		#00000003.00204D40
    
    Anyone have any ideas?  Can anyone with QUARTERBACK TOOLS tell me if it
    might help in this instance?  Does anyone know of any options?
    
    Help!
    George
    
    Ps: To check the integrity of the rest of the system I mounted
    everything except the bad partition and played around for a while
    without a guru or any problems.
    
    George
    

    
    Exactly what happened to me when I added a 2Meg ASDG board to my Rev.
    4.3 B2000 with a 2090A in it.
    
    The fix was to do the U605 pull up FCO (described in the Flakey
    report). This report can be found at:
    
    CGFSV3::AMIGA:[INFO]amiga_flake.txt 
    
    Until you do this, every time you DMA to disk from the ASDG memory, you
    will trash your drive. 
    
    To verify, pull the ASDG and try to format, I'm sure it will work
    without the ASDG board.
    
    	Regards....   Clint
    
    

    RE: .10 (Clint)
    
    I will perform the fix described but strange things have happended.
    Elves fixed my system!?! :-)
    
    But seriusly, I just booted it for one last look.  I'm off to Scotland
    in about three hours so thats all I had time for.  I mounted the disk
    and it was there and clean?!?  I FORMAT ... QUICK and no error was
    found.  I don't rtust it exactly but it is stragnge.
    
    Thanks for the info on the ASDG fix.!
    
    Gerge
    

    RE: .11 That's not an ASDG fix. It is a factory cert'ed modification
    that corrects a problem when using the 2090A controller with some
    periphs. I believe it is part of the REV 4.5 ECO por Rev 6.0 ECO (not
    sure which).
    

    RE: .11  BTW, carefulee with Quaterback Tools. The current Rev is 1.3d.
    Earlier revs, particularly those before Rev 1.3c could do some real
    file damage!