nomad@orstcs.cs.ORST.EDU (06/30/87)
Boy do I feel the fool. The day I ordered two ST238 (RLL) hard disks
and a Western Digital RLL controller (1002-27x I think, for the PC, not AT) I
see all the postings about st238 problems.
Well, here is my problem:
When I ran the low level format built into the controler, no problem.
FDISK had no problems.
FORMAT C:/s/v - says "Format Complete..." then it says something
like "track 0 bad - disk unuseable", never asks for the name of
the drive.
I can still boot off of C:, but SYS complains that there is no
space available to install DOS (though it is obviously there).
FORMAT D:/v - same symptoms as C: format above. Also works.
Every once in a while the drives will start "grinding" - this is a
loud semi-high-pitched grrrrrrrrrrr'ing. It goes up and down
the scale, then stops. The noise is becomming more frequent.
I have had these drives for 4 days now.
The only "non-standard" item in my machine (other than the drives,
that is - this is an origional PC with ROM BIOS upgrade) is a
QuadSprint (80186 speedup card from Quadram).
Anyone ever heard of a problem like this? Or, even better, a
solution to the noise/format errors? Oh yes, while I am thinking of it,
can anyone recommend good, FAST backup programs? When I only had 10mb of
hard disk, BACKUP was fine, but now with 60mb... <sheesh!>
ADVthanksANCE
nomad
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LEE DAMON FidoNet: 341/1 (The Castle) - (503) 757-8841
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"Say what you like, the bicycle has a great past ahead of it!"wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (07/04/87)
In our building, we have a number of ST-238s running in RLL mode. Several different types of controller cards are in use. We had a few minor problems with an early model of the Adaptec 1070 (I hope that's the correct model #) RLL controller. We've used the Western Digital and SMS/OMTI controllers without incident. It's my understanding that some Adaptec controllers made before 10-1987 caused overhaeating (how it could, I'm not sure) in some seagate drives. This caused seek errors. As evidenced by "Error: sector not found reading drive C" or some similar nonsense from DOS. My suspicion is that the Apaptec 1070 keeps the coils of the head stepper motor energized all the time, and shouldn't. That would cause excessive heating. If you have an old Adaptec card, it's my understanding that you can get an upgrade kit, that you presumably can install your self. I'd call Adaptec directly, rather than fooling around with the dealer where you got your drive. It's possible that turbo CPU coprocessor cards could be causing bus contention by using the same DMA channel as the disk controller. Try low level format, fdisk, format and boot without the trubo CPU. Call the turbo board maker for details if you localize the problem there. I've been Using an ST-238 with an SMS/OMTI controller in an 8 MHz AT&T 6300 and NEC (not Zilog) V-30 CPU chip at home since January, and haven't encountered any problems (Yet!!). I used an interleaf factor of three, but I'm not sure if that is optimal. Bill Mayhew Division of Basic Medical Sciences Northeastern Ohio Universities' College of Medicine Rootstown, OH 44272-9989 USA phone: 216-325-2511 (wtm@neoucom.UUCP)
2212msr@whuts.UUCP (ROBIN) (07/04/87)
n your recent qritcle you asked about GOOD backup programs. We currently use COREFAST by Core Inc (Florida address -see PC). It has been excellant ans is quite fast. (I backed up 14.8M from a Seagate 4051 on my AT last nite in 6 min. 21 sec., using 1.2M floppies.) Max S. Robin AT&T Bell Laboratories Whippany, NJ 07981 email:whuts!2212msr voice:201-386-6865
nomad@orstcs.UUCP (07/06/87)
What I forgot to say in my origional posting is that I didn't have the
CPU speedup card in when I installed the drives. All of the formatting and
lowlevel stuff was done with the origional 8088 installed.
Also, I just ran DOG (Disk OrGanizer) on the D: drive and it said that the
second FAT was bad. I don't know if it fixed it or not, but I wonder if that
was part of the problem...
nomad@orstcs
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