[comp.unix.i386] ST4766E/N by Impriss, backup power.

twg0214@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (09/04/90)

I use the 4766 disk in my Gataway 386/33MHz system with the Ultrastor
controller. It gave me a lot of pain. My system arrived at the beginning of 
May this year. The disk did not spin until I switched the computer
on and of 5 times. Then it worked just fine. The replacement disk was better, 
it spinned after 4 cycles of switching. The third one which looked slightly    
redesigned started fine the first time.                    
During low-level format, the disk has many defects, perhaps it is normal for
a disk with 8 platters.
I use this disk with OS/2 and DOS 4.01. Under DOS and using the controller 
provided sector and cylinder translation, all disk space can be utilized even
in a single partition. Under OS/2, there is a 1024 cylinder limitation and 
you can use only 528 Mbytes out of about 668. My Ultrastor manual warns that	the cylinder limit is also present in UNIX i386 systems. 
I have heard that it is also bulit into some BIOS (AMI?) routines. 
The disk takes plenty of power, especially at the start-up. Having two 
replacement disk, I tries to run two disks , having over 1.3 Gbyte on line. 
It did not work reliably perhaps because my 220 W power supply was too weak. 
Ignacy Misztal
 Bitnet: ignacy@uiucvmd.bitnet
Internet: ignacy@uiuc.edu