kosma%human-torch@stc.lockheed.com (Monty Kosma) (07/04/90)
From: "Bryan Bayerdorffer @ Wit's End" <bryan@cs.utexas.edu>
Mmdf-Warning: Unable to confirm address in preceding line at udel.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Date: 3 Jul 90 16:30:43 GMT
Mmdf-Warning: Unable to confirm address in preceding line at udel.edu
Organization: Spam Detection & Removal Squad, Austin, TX
Spam-Content: Negligible
Sender: amiga-relay-request@udel.edu
In article <33215@ut-emx.UUCP> lshaw@walt.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw) writes:
[about Quantum drives]
=-
=-After you have not used the disk for a period of 5 or 10 seconds, the
=-drive will decide to park itself. Thus, you don't have to do it yourself.
=-Sometimes you'll see the little light flash when it does this.
=-
Er, no. The hard disk light flashes briefly after a short timeout
(which is more like 3 seconds) because the disk validator is accessing the
drive, updating the bitmap for some partition. This is the Amiga system
software at work, not the drive controller.
=-Corollary: If you reboot or power off within a few seconds of accessing the
=-disk, the head may not have had a chance to park, and bad things can happen.
=-Usually, you can appease the "Volume dh0: not validated" requestor by hitting
=-[retry] several times (be persistent). If this happens, you'll see the hard
=-disk moving like you never thought it could, trying to figure out life. The
=-light will be on solid for a good 20 seconds or more. Once it's done,
=-everything should be back to normal.
=-
Quantum drives ALWAYS park when they lose power. What happens when you
power down or reboot immediately after a disk access is that the disk validator
has not had a chance to update the bitmap. When the Amiga subsequently boots,
the validator runs and discovers that the bitmap is invalid. It then has to
read the entire directory tree to find out which sectors are in use. This is
what all the disk activity is about. If you cause a write to the disk during
this validation interval, you'll get the 'not validated' requestor. Eventually
validation will terminate, and your retry will succeed. None of this has
anything to do with parking the heads. Think about it: what could possibly be
the reason for parking the heads on a warm reboot?
sorry, but regardless of lights flashing and disks being validated, the
quantum hard drives (and many others, like my seagate st251) DO automatically
park the head after a few seconds of disk inactivity.csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod ) (07/04/90)
kosma%human-torch@stc.lockheed.com (Monty Kosma) writes: >sorry, but regardless of lights flashing and disks being validated, the >quantum hard drives (and many others, like my seagate st251) DO automatically >park the head after a few seconds of disk inactivity. They don't. The Quantum OEM manuals say nothing about interval parking. They do, however, recalibrate themselves from time to time. The Seagate ST251 is a MFM drive with no built-in intelligence. It can't park itself (except when it's being switched off). You might, however, own a controller with software that does things like this for you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Claus Brod, Am Felsenkeller 2, Things. Take. Time. D-8772 Marktheidenfeld, West Germany (Piet Hein) csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de ----------------------------------------------------------------------
p554mve@mpirbn.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (Michael van Elst) (07/04/90)
In article <23543@snow-white.udel.EDU> kosma%human-torch@stc.lockheed.com (Monty Kosma) writes: >sorry, but regardless of lights flashing and disks being validated, the >quantum hard drives (and many others, like my seagate st251) DO automatically >park the head after a few seconds of disk inactivity. Nope, the st251 parks its heads when power is switched off. If they are parked when the drive is inactive it must be a function of the driver software. (Nevertheless, Quantums could do that) -- Michael van Elst UUCP: universe!local-cluster!milky-way!sol!earth!uunet!unido!mpirbn!p554mve Internet: p554mve@mpirbn.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de "A potential Snark may lurk in every tree."
bryan@cs.utexas.edu (Bryan Bayerdorffer @ Wit's End) (07/05/90)
In article <23543@snow-white.udel.EDU> kosma%human-torch@stc.lockheed.com (Monty Kosma) writes:
=-
=-sorry, but regardless of lights flashing and disks being validated, the
=-quantum hard drives (and many others, like my seagate st251) DO automatically
=-park the head after a few seconds of disk inactivity.
Yes. Where did I write that they don't? I merely pointed out that in
neither case did the disk activity mentioned have anything to do with when/if
the heads were parked.plonka@carroll1.cc.edu (Dave Plonka) (07/05/90)
In article <2953@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de> csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod ) writes: >kosma%human-torch@stc.lockheed.com (Monty Kosma) writes: >>sorry, but regardless of lights flashing and disks being validated, the >>quantum hard drives (and many others, like my seagate st251) DO automatically >>park the head after a few seconds of disk inactivity. >They don't. The Quantum OEM manuals say nothing about interval parking. >They do, however, recalibrate themselves from time to time. >The Seagate ST251 is a MFM drive with no built-in intelligence. It can't >park itself (except when it's being switched off). You might, however, >own a controller with software that does things like this for you. Then what is my ST296N with GVP SCSI+8 doing when it flickers it's little green light after I leave it alone for a couple minutes? I have no idea. Is the GVP card doing this? They have no built-in intelligence but they recalibrate themselves from time to time?? [.sig deleted] Dave -- -----------------------------------------------------------------///-------- plonka@carroll1.cc.edu Dave Plonka /// uunet!marque!carroll1!plonka ARS: N9HZF \\\/// AMIGA -------------------------------------------------------------\XX/-----------
caw@miroc.Chi.IL.US (Christopher A. Wichura) (07/05/90)
In article <13024@cbmvax.commodore.com> andy@cbmvax.commodore.com (Andy Finkel) writes: >In article <caw.1803@miroc.Chi.IL.US> caw@miroc.Chi.IL.US (Christopher A. Wichura) writes: >>Welp, I just got my new 3000. The machine is great. However, for someone >>used to the ARP command set, I was not too impressed by the supposedly >>enhanced C: commands. You can't even CD to a wildcard... > >Sure you can; however, if there's more than one possible target >the CD fails. (rather than take whichever one it found first) Welp, then the error message returned ought to be one of the `ambigous wildcard specifcied' flavor rather than the generic `object doesn't exist' message. >>Also, the drive mask is supposed to be $fffffffe, correct? I couldn't >>remember if it was that or the other way around $..ffc. > >Best if it ends with a C (longword alignment, rather than word alignment) Ok, guess I did get it backwards... -=> CAW /////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Christopher A. Wichura caw@miroc.chi.il.us (my amiga) u12401@uicvm.uic.edu (my school account) Please! Do not send mail to my school account unless mail to miroc bounces. I often do not check uicvm.uic.edu for periods in excess of a week. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////////
kosma%human-torch@stc.lockheed.com (Monty Kosma) (07/06/90)
From: Michael van Elst <p554mve@mpirbn.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de> In article <23543@snow-white.udel.EDU> kosma%human-torch@stc.lockheed.com (Monty Kosma) writes: >sorry, but regardless of lights flashing and disks being validated, the >quantum hard drives (and many others, like my seagate st251) DO automatically >park the head after a few seconds of disk inactivity. Nope, the st251 parks its heads when power is switched off. If they are parked when the drive is inactive it must be a function of the driver software. (Nevertheless, Quantums could do that) oops, yeah, sorry about the misinformation...I remember now that it was an option I selected when setting up my drive, so it must have to do with the A2090 controller....
csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod ) (07/06/90)
plonka@carroll1.cc.edu (Dave Plonka) writes: >>They don't. The Quantum OEM manuals say nothing about interval parking. >>They do, however, recalibrate themselves from time to time. >>The Seagate ST251 is a MFM drive with no built-in intelligence. It can't >>park itself (except when it's being switched off). You might, however, >>own a controller with software that does things like this for you. >Then what is my ST296N with GVP SCSI+8 doing when it flickers it's little >green light after I leave it alone for a couple minutes? I have no idea. >Is the GVP card doing this? >They have no built-in intelligence but they recalibrate themselves from time >to time?? The ST296N is a SCSI drive with built-in controller, so it has some intelligence and might do things like recalibrating. The ST251 is a ST506 MFM drive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Claus Brod, Am Felsenkeller 2, Things. Take. Time. D-8772 Marktheidenfeld, West Germany (Piet Hein) csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de ----------------------------------------------------------------------