bob@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Lanfranco Albani) (12/21/90)
Hi netpeople! I've tried to install a Maxtor XT-4380S SCSI hard-disk in a HP 9000/400t HP-UX system (release 7.03). This is the first /etc/disktab entry I used: maxtor4|maxtor4:\ :20 MByte swap:ns#18:nt#15:nc#1118:\ :s0#301860:b0#8192:f0#1024:\ :se#512:rm#3600: I included a line "maxtor4 scsi" in /etc/master, made the special files, run mediainit, made the filesystem, added the drive in /etc/checklist, mounted the filesystem, and everything ran fine. The new disk was a bit faster than the internal one. Two days later, the swap area almost disappeared, leaving a mere 90 Kbytes instead the full 27 Mbytes of the previous day. A frantic volley of phone calls with the Maxtor importer established that the sector number (ns#) may have to be 17 instead of 18. So here is the new /etc/disktab: maxtor4|maxtor4:\ :20 MByte swap:ns#17:nt#15:nc#1118:\ :s0#285090:b0#8192:f0#1024:\ :se#512:rm#3600: I repeated the admin tasks, and the disk ran fine again. I then filled it with all the users' stuff. Three days later some directories (random order) disappeared! Of course it may be the drive's fault, but we never had any problems with these drives on other machines (DEC, SUN), so I feel it is more likely that I botched something in the installation. Any idea? I would like to do some tests on the "bare drive", as I used to do on Msdos machines with simple programs to write and reread every physical sector, but I'm not sure about the best way to proceed (or even if this is reasonable in this case) - should I just redo some installation and go ahead and open the raw/character disk device? But even that would give me no clue if any error came from the raw disk or from a botched install, right? Any clue welcome... Thanks in advance. Lanfranco -- Lanfranco Albani - CAD.LAB s.p.a., v. Stalingrado 45, Bologna, Italia Email: (work:) bob@cadlab.sublink.org, (home:) bob@allan.sublink.org Phone: (work:) ++39 (51) 371099, (home:) ++39 (51) 727372; Fax: ++39 (51) 366964 (work only), Fidonet: 2:332/401.4 (home only).