[comp.os.minix] XT Clone Hard-disk Problems

jim@turbo.RAY.COM (Jim Shaw x8232) (07/16/87)

As a new user I have seen reference to problems/fixes with hard disks 
when running MINIX. I have borrowed a Western Digital controller (since 
my AMBIT PACE controller using NEC 7261A chip is incompatible) and 
set up my hard disk (10Meg) with 2* 5Meg partitions using Speedstor(tm)
When running mkfs ( mkfs /dev/hd2 5000 ) I encountered problems that
were solved by using the entire disk with a single MINIX partition.
mkfs took a few minutes to make the file system on hd0 which seems to 
me to be slow. After mounting hd0 as /user and creating a /user/bin directory
I tried "cp /usr/bin/* /user/bin" but it  was so slow I aborted it.
About 24 files copied in 10 minutes. The drive activity light only flashed
briefly about once per second. Running "date" made the drive light flash
6 times (6 blocks loaded??) taking 6 seconds to load.
A friend has had further problems with his clone - mainly many disk errors
during all accesses - resulting in hard disk needs reset messages
Can anyone shed any light on these problems. The hard disk is unusable at
such slow speeds and with many errors.

Another question: Has anyone used either the Western Digital  or
Adaptec 27RLL controllers with MINIX and is the W.D RLL one software 
compatible with the standard controller (it seems to me it could be 
since the RLL bit is a hardware feature) I had started rewriting xt_wini.c
for the NEC chip by my controller board has since died so I'm looking at 
alternatives to replace it. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

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#      Jim Shaw                                    #
#         (617)-460-8232                           #     
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 jim@turbo.ray.com		.....!rayssd!turbo!jim