[comp.sys.ibm.pc] SCSI Board and Formatter/Driver

neese@adaptex.UUCP (02/21/90)

>/* ---------- "Re: SCSI Board and Formatter/Driver" ---------- */
>Try the Adaptec AHA 154x SCSI controller. It has a built in bios so
>no need to worry about config.sys etc. I don't know about low level
>formating, (ie formating DAM..etc) but higher level formating (ie
>dos format) works as usual. 
>
>Mel

The Adaptec BIOS has on board utilities for doing a low-level format
of a SCSI drive.  Although they are not really needed, except in some
strange cases.  All SCSI hard drives come pre-formatted at the fastest
interleave the drive will support.  The only time you would need to do a
low-level format is if you picked up a bad block on a device, or a drive
came with a partition table already installed on it.
In some cases, such as the Quantum drives, it does no good to format them.
The Quantum drives will not do a low-level format.  They just accept the
command and return good status.  They do this as they are hard sectored
and more SCSI drives are coming out this way.

			Roy Neese
			Adaptec Central Field Applications Engineer
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