meulenbr@cstw68.prl.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks) (06/06/90)
Hi! I'm currently trying to connect a Micropolis 1355 ESDI drive to my computer. For that purpose I use an Adaptec 4520 SCSI<->ESDI converter. I can format the drive, and use it for a while. However occasionally a read or write command fails with the status NOSEEKCOMPLETE. Retrying the operation right away yields the same error. However, if I wait a little while and then retry the operation sometimes succeeds. Failures are often reported for the same sectors, but not always. A sector which sometimes causes a failure may be accessed OK the next time. Also sectors which normally do not cause a failure sometimes will generate problems. The number of problems varies a little during the time. It also seems to depend on the formatting of the drive, since if I reformat the drive chances that the error occurs change (for better or for worse). I'm quite puzzled by this, and you can make my day if you could help me with some or all of my questions. They are: 1) Why does a drive generate NOSEEKCOMPLETE, and why is its behaviour so inconsistent? 2) Is this a problem in a) the adaptec b) the micropolis c) timing between the adaptec and micropolis 3) What can I do to cure this problem? I'm an electrical engineer, and capable to adjust the drive if required, if only I knew what to do 4) Can someone help me with documentation about the drive (especially the ESDI controller at the back of the micropolis). 5) should I mark all blocks which cause this error as bad? This is difficult due to the intermittent nature of the problem. By the way: the drive is out of warranty, not in a service agreement, and I do not know a company who can repair this beast so currently I'm more or less stuck. Any help will be appreciated greatly! Thanks in advance, Frans Meulenbroeks (meulenbr@cst.philips.nl) Centre for Software Technology ( or try: ...!mcsun!phigate!prle!cst!meulenbr)