vlrugvg@dutrun.UUCP (Ge van Geldorp) (03/18/90)
I just got myself a Microscience HH 1090 harddisk. It is controlled by a WD1006V-MM2, AT-compatible, MFM controller. No special software came with either the drive or the controller. The problem is that the harddisk has more than 1024 cylinders. I can't find a utility to do a low-level format of a disk larger than 1024 cylinders. I can tell my setup utility that the disk has 7 heads and 1024 cylinders, after that I can use lots of utilities to low-level format the first 1024 cylinders. However, I wouldn't mind being able to access the last 18 MB or so of my drive. (BTW, I suppose DOS will have a problem accessing the cylinders > 1024, but that doesn't bother me, that part of the disk will be used by Xenix). Ge van Geldorp ge@dutlru2.tudelft.nl ...!uunet!hp4nl!dutlru2.tudelft.nl!ge
KUO@oregon.uoregon.edu (Shijong Kuo) (03/19/90)
In article <1182@dutrun.UUCP>, vlrugvg@dutrun.UUCP (Ge van Geldorp) writes: > I just got myself a Microscience HH 1090 harddisk. It is controlled by a > WD1006V-MM2, AT-compatible, MFM controller. No special software came > with either the drive or the controller. > The problem is that the harddisk has more than 1024 cylinders. I've just formatted a microscience 1120 which is identical to 1090 except RLL You'll need ontrack's disk manager( which should come with the drive) to do the low level format. Here's what I've found some tricky details: The machine configuration was 386-25 clone (soyo MB, C & T chips, AMI bios), WD 1006-SR2 controller and toshiba mk72 HD ( < 1024 cylinders). First change Cmos setup HD type to user defined (1 in my case). Reboot and start debug, goto WD bios entry point cc00:5 and change drive type and parameters (1314 cyls, 7 hds, ...), then exit debug without proceeding to use the bios routine to do low level format, ( it will wrap around cyl 1024 and would not finish). Then put disk manager disk into drive a, run swbios.com before runing dm /m . Once you are in DM, first check drive configuration, make sure the drive parameters recognized by DM is the same as the numbers you entered when defining drive type in WD bios. If yes, you should be in good shape, then proceed to enter defect list, initialize disk and define partition and prepare them for u se. If DM did not read the same parameters as you entered before, then there's probably some mistake in the enetring process, try again. you will need dmdrvr.bin in your config.sys to use the HD. I spoke to both ontrack and WD's tech rep when I was having difficulty getting dos to recognize both HD on my system, they didn't think it could be done because of the situation one drive > 1024 a nd the other drive < 1024 . For a single 1090 or 2 1090, there shuldn't be any problem. WD 1006 can support disk up to 2048 cyls according to WD people, but you do need third party software to do the low level formatting. good luck. kuo@oregon.uoregon.edu
keithe@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson) (03/19/90)
In article <1182@dutrun.UUCP>, vlrugvg@dutrun.UUCP (Ge van Geldorp) writes: > I just got myself a Microscience HH 1090 harddisk. It is controlled by a > WD1006V-MM2, AT-compatible, MFM controller. No special software came > with either the drive or the controller. > The problem is that the harddisk has more than 1024 cylinders. Western Digital's "WDFMT" will format more than 1024 cylinders; but I'm not familiar with the WD1006-MM2 to know whether _it_ will got beyond that limit. WDFMT is available from Western Digital's BBS or from the SIMTEL20 archives. kEITHe
strike@clmqt.marquette.Mi.US (Tim Bowser) (03/26/90)
vlrugvg@dutrun.UUCP (Ge van Geldorp) writes: >The problem is that the harddisk has more than 1024 cylinders. I can't find a >utility to do a low-level format of a disk larger than 1024 cylinders. >I can tell my setup utility that the disk has 7 heads and 1024 >cylinders, after that I can use lots of utilities to low-level format >the first 1024 cylinders. However, I wouldn't mind being able to access >the last 18 MB or so of my drive. >(BTW, I suppose DOS will have a problem accessing the cylinders > 1024, >but that doesn't bother me, that part of the disk will be used by >Xenix). >Ge van Geldorp >ge@dutlru2.tudelft.nl >...!uunet!hp4nl!dutlru2.tudelft.nl!ge According to the Western Digital information I have for my -SR2 (RLL variant of the MM2), you can use the onboard BIOS routines to run the formatting. The WD'd BIOS will format up to 2048 cylinders, 16 heads, and will automatically reset the computer's CMOS drive type. This worked for my setup except for the annoying problem of a 1:1 formatting routine on the chip, and a 2:1 version drive controller :(. The command to get the BIOS routines is given from debug -g=cc00:5 . Be forewarned, if you do NOT exit the program via the Exit command (I think it is selection 6), you'll either hopelessly scramble the FAT or partition tables. If you don't have a backup of the drive, don't run the BIOS setup. Hope this helps... -- Tim Bowser ("Strikemaster") | Standard | mailrus!sharkey!clmqt!strike Enterprise Information System | Disclaimer | strike@clmqt.marquette.Mi.US Marquette, Mi. USA | Here | Voice:(906)-346-6735 => UNIX: The Adventure Begins... To vi, or not to vi, that is the question. <=