[comp.sys.ibm.pc] WD cache HD controller disable

BARTHELEMY-O@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Olivier Barthelemy) (03/01/90)

Hi. I just got a new WD cache HD controller. Since my hard disk has
some problems , I need to reformat it. I planned on using Spinrite,
but to do so I have to disable the cache. 

Does anyone know how it can be done.

Thanks for any help.		Olivier.

				Barthelemy-o@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu

jdudeck@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (John R. Dudeck) (03/01/90)

In article <12570040897043@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu> BARTHELEMY-O@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Olivier Barthelemy) writes:
>Hi. I just got a new WD cache HD controller. Since my hard disk has
>some problems , I need to reformat it. I planned on using Spinrite,
>but to do so I have to disable the cache. 
>
Spinrite II should work without disabling the cache.  The product announcement
says "SpinRite II operates with high-performance hard disk controllers which
employ full-track buffering.  These buffers do not need to be disabled when
using SpinRite II."

I use Spinrite II on my WD1006VMM2 controller and ST4096 hard disk with no
problems.

-- 
John Dudeck                           "You want to read the code closely..." 
jdudeck@Polyslo.CalPoly.Edu             -- C. Staley, in OS course, teaching 
ESL: 62013975 Tel: 805-545-9549          Tanenbaum's MINIX operating system.

phil@pepsi.amd.com (Phil Ngai) (03/02/90)

In article <25ec7864.2f4@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> jdudeck@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (John R. Dudeck) writes:
|In article <12570040897043@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu> BARTHELEMY-O@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Olivier Barthelemy) writes:
|>Hi. I just got a new WD cache HD controller. Since my hard disk has
|>some problems , I need to reformat it. I planned on using Spinrite,
|>but to do so I have to disable the cache. 
|
|I use Spinrite II on my WD1006VMM2 controller and ST4096 hard disk with no
|problems.

I'll second that. I use SRII on my WD1006V-SR2 and ST-4096 with no
problems either. Nearly 800 Kbytes throughput! Yes, this is running
RLL on an MFM drive. Please don't call the MFM police.

--
Phil Ngai, phil@amd.com		{uunet,decwrl,ucbvax}!amdcad!phil
A PC without DESQview is like Unix without ^Z.

trent@uncecs.edu (Glenn Jordan) (03/02/90)

  The _original_ Spinrite will work fine on a WD1006V-SR2 controlled hard-disk,
right folks? The caching that needs to be disabled for Spinrite is only the
processor implemented caching you would get with a software cache. Not the
on board track cache used to make 1-to-1 interleave possible...