new@udel.EDU (Darren New) (05/23/89)
I have recently purchased a SyQuest 555 (a 44 MByte removable drive). Needing a SCSI driver, I borrowed a C-Ltd controller from a friend. My problem is that the controller won't mount the driver. The commands that work include cap, romode, romat, genformat, Park (which powers down the drive, even),MakePart, MakeFlop, and apparently quickformat. What won't work: HDFormat and anything else mentioned above, including all the scripts that come with the driver software. Mount will work, but when I try to DOS-format the dh0:, it tells me it can't load the driver. I have both df0:devs/SCSI.device and df0:devs/ACB-4000.driver there. I've tried scadzillions of FLAG= in the mountlist entry. Has anyone gotten their C-Ltd controller to work on a non-C-Ltd drive? Amiga A-1000 2 floppies 512 ram (C-Ltd not found when my starboard is online) C-Ltd software: "SCSIDOS 2.01" HHHHEEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!! (Thanks in advance) -- Darren
baer@percival.UUCP (Ken Baer) (05/25/89)
In article <16004@louie.udel.EDU> new@udel.EDU (Darren New) writes: > >I have recently purchased a SyQuest 555 (a 44 MByte removable drive). >Needing a SCSI driver, I borrowed a C-Ltd controller from a friend. >My problem is that the controller won't mount the driver. > [...] >What won't work: HDFormat and anything else mentioned above, including >all the scripts that come with the driver software. >Mount will work, but when I try to DOS-format the dh0:, it tells me >it can't load the driver. I too have been having major bigtime problems with a CLtd controller. I've already lost 1.5 weeks of development time. I am using my bosses old machine (my A1000 is at the office now). I started having problems with software that rendered and saved animation. The drive light would come on and not go out, even after a warm boot. So after doing several reformats (low and high level), re-partitioning, updating to newer driver software, wrestling with the extremely minimal technical support that CLtd provides (to be fair, the guy I talked with was helpful, but he only worked from 1-5pm, and wasn't there much of the time), they need more tech people, I found that the problem was hardware. Moving some boards around seemed to help the problem. Anyway, to try to answer your question: It sounds like you need to fix something in your mountlist. This happened to me, and it took me 2 days to find that I had the wrong value for Interleave. Grrrrr! After that it worked fine. If you're just borrowing your friend's CLtd controller, my advice is to invest in a different one. It isn't worth the trouble. I'm stuck with mine, cause that's what my boss bought. I've heard good things about Supra's controller, and CMI is coming out with one soon, I've always been happy with their products. Well, back to restoring my drive. If it doesn't work this time, I'm giving my machine to David Letterman to drop off the 5 story tower! :-) >(Thanks in advance) -- Darren -- -Ken Baer. // Hash Enterprises: Choosy Toons Choose Hash. \X/ USENET - baer@percival.UUCP, PLINK - KEN BAER, BIX - kbaer, "while (AINTGOTNOSATISFACTION) { do stuff }" - RJ Mical
addison@pollux.usc.edu (Richard Addison) (06/19/89)
In article <1509@percival.UUCP> baer@percival.UUCP (Ken Baer) writes: >In article <16004@louie.udel.EDU> new@udel.EDU (Darren New) writes: >> >>I have recently purchased a SyQuest 555 (a 44 MByte removable drive). >>Needing a SCSI driver, I borrowed a C-Ltd controller from a friend. >>My problem is that the controller won't mount the driver. >> [...] >>What won't work: HDFormat and anything else mentioned above, including >>all the scripts that come with the driver software. >>Mount will work, but when I try to DOS-format the dh0:, it tells me >>it can't load the driver. > >I too have been having major bigtime problems with a CLtd controller. Darren, I lost your original posting. Do you have a 1000 or a 2000? On my 2000, with a C-Ltd controller and a SyQuest 555, I found that I had to load the cartridge into the drive (and close the lock) before I turned on the power to the machine. This, of course, means that I have to reboot (power cycle) in order to change disk cartridges, which defeats some of the purpose of having something as flexible as the SyQuest. I am debating about getting the GVP controller, since it apparently has full support for my SyQuest. Any comments, anybody? Are there any other controllers that will support the SyQuest properly? I went to Creative Computers in Santa Monica the other day and heard that they had a customer's computer in the back room with the GVP '030, the GVP SCSI, and a SyQuest. Wow, just like I want to set up! They also had the "FATTER" AGNUS 8372 (PN#318069-02) chip available, so I bought one. Now it appears that the C-Ltd software doesn't like the absence of the ram at $C0000 (which is marked 'fast' because it doesn't fit in any other category). The quickest way around this might be to get the GVP board. Any comments? Richard Addison "Did you know that 'gullible' is not in the dictionary?"
new@udel.EDU (Darren New) (06/20/89)
Regarding the C-Ltd controller: I've received the 3.0 upgrade of the software (I have a 1000, by the way) and it seems to work OK. The documentation was seriously wrong in many places. There is a defaults file for the SQ555 but the numbers in it are wrong and the program that uses it does not work. The programs as documented on the disk are in different places, called different things, and the command sequences listed in the book give errors when attempted from the CLI. I called and found out that I had to use a program called GenFormat with the SyQuest drive in order to format it. When I asked, I was told that the interleave on the SyQuest drive is fixed at 1:1, but when I tried reformatting and running DiskPerf, I found the performance to vary significantly with different interleaves. All in all, it works, but I'm happy only because the hardware was free. I would expect more from a professional product like this. Regarding the GVP controller: I have a 1000, which wont hold the GVP card, but a friend of mine has one. It is really nice, as GVP seems to actually know how to handle the SyQuest drive, even to the extent of automatically issuing a DiskChange when the cartridge is changed. The installation is very easy (my friend says) and it seems fast. There was a review in the Sentry a few months back (April or so). From what I've seen, the GVP controller beats teh CLtd controller hands down. Good luck! -- Darren