cassiel@well.sf.ca.us (Paul Theodoropoulos) (06/22/91)
I'm hoping that the hardware illuminati out in net-land will be able to figure this out. I own an Amiga 3000. i recently purchased a Maxtor 7120SR SCSI drive from a mac peripheral reseller. I had hoped to set this pup up as my boot drive, and then sell my stock quantum 40 meg drive (and the Conner 40meg i hacked into the system some time ago). unfortunately, this drive just will not work with my machine. First off, it spins up VERY slowly, a la seagate. so slowly that on cold boot, the machine thinks there's no harddrive in the system. OK, fine, i'll keep the quantum for booting, and use the maxtor as my second drive....NOPE. i've tried everything in the book and this drive will not function properly. I've tried "HDToolBox", which tells me its a Maxtor 7120SCS, Rev 3228. 1497 Cylinders. 4 heads. 42 blocks per track. 164 blocks per cylinder. (Maxtor tech support says 1498 cyl., 4 heads, 42 bl. per track). QBTools says only ONE head. anyway, i can low- and high-level format the drive. i can copy files to the drive. if i try and run programs from it, i get the full complement of amigados disk error notices: checksum error, key invalid, bad header, etc. if i copy a full directory to the drive, then run LS, many of the files in the directory will be listed multiple times. If i run QBTools, it will report "Disk error reading bitmap". I've tried doing the full complement of harddrive installing programs on the A3000 Install Disk: PrepHD, FormatHD, InstallHD. This always fails at some point, with either the machine or the drive locking up (or both). Yes, i've turned off Reselection via HDToolBox. In fact, i took the drive in to work, and had MIS install it in a MacIIcx, format, run diagnostics, etc.. Checks out fine, so i guess the drive isn't defective. I'm rather at my wits end! i've got this nifty, big, new harddrive that is virtually useless. (yes, i've jumpered the scsi address to whatever is appropriate - 06 if i'm using it as first and bootable, anything else if used as second drive). (Yes, i'm minding my termination, terminating the last unit in the daisy-chain). Any wizards out there have any ideas? I've called Maxtor tech support, they don't know Amiga from Atari. I've talked to my local amiga dealer, Winner's Circle, and though friendly and helpful, they had no idea. I've gone over the System Software manuals with a fine tooth comb. I've scoured the "introducing the Commodore Amiga 3000" booklet (which has remarkably detailed technical info, but nothing that helped with this problem). i'd hate to have to chuck this drive ( a: return drive to sellor. b: sell via comp.marketplace. c: trade for a 105meg quantum that MIS has offered ). i want my 120 megabytes!! i should note that the previously mentioned Conner, a CP340, came from a computer equipment scavenging company. came from a Mac. it also gave me some grief, trying to install it - difficult to format. but that grief amounted to maybe six hours. not the week this one has cost me...) thank you very much in advance, and my sincere apologies for the length of this. i remain, Paul Theodoropoulos cassiel@well.sf.ca.us
darrell@comspec.uucp (Darrell Grainger) (06/22/91)
In article <25594@well.sf.ca.us> cassiel@well.sf.ca.us (Paul Theodoropoulos) writes: > > >I'm hoping that the hardware illuminati out in net-land will be able to >figure this out. > >I own an Amiga 3000. i recently purchased a Maxtor 7120SR SCSI drive from >a mac peripheral reseller. I had hoped to set this pup up as my boot >drive, and then sell my stock quantum 40 meg drive (and the Conner 40meg >i hacked into the system some time ago). unfortunately, this drive just >will not work with my machine. Something to look into might be a problem with the external SCSI port on the Amiga 3000. It has been quite a while since I heard about it but I vaguely remember some of the very first A3000s having a problem with the external SCSI port. Maybe you have one of the very first A3000. I think it was something as simple as a diode backwards. >i remain, > >Paul Theodoropoulos cassiel@well.sf.ca.us -- Darrell Grainger % Comspec Communications Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada darrell@comspec % Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own. (416) 617-1475 % (416) 633-5605 (416)785-3553
cassiel@well.sf.ca.us (Paul Theodoropoulos) (06/24/91)
darrell@comspec.uucp (Darrell Grainger) writes: > Something to look into might be a problem with the external SCSI port on >the Amiga 3000. It has been quite a while since I heard about it but I >vaguely remember some of the very first A3000s having a problem with the >external SCSI port. Maybe you have one of the very first A3000. I think it >was something as simple as a diode backwards. I failed to note that i am setting this up internally, using the 50 pin ribbon cable. stupid error on my part - that's the problem with trying to get a serious hardware problem figured out via a text description. i've tried setting it up as the only harddrive in the system, and as the second (of two) in the system. neither way works (of course i terminate only the last drive in the daisy chain). if i try formatting it with the amigados format command - e.g.: format drive mdh0: name maxtor0 ffs noicons (without the 'quick' option), the format will lock up after anywhere from 14 cylinders to 130 cylinders formatted and verified (by "lock up" i mean that the harddrive light locks on, the pointer locks up, everything. i have to reboot.) if i format using the 'quick' option, it seems to work, and _info_ will report back a valid amigados drive. i can copy files and directories to it, but if i try to run a program (i.e. click on the icon), i'll get a requestor stating "cannot open tool xxxx", or, the machine will lock up and i'll have to reboot. another oddity is that if i use HDToolBox, and simply repartition the drive, after rebooting, the icon for the drive will come up titled with odd characters after the device name (one's that i can't recreate with this terminal program), like MDH0: followed by four 'u's with umlauts. i've used the following programs in various attempts to solve this problem: HDToolBox V2.0 Format (amigados) Bformat Validate DiskSalv V1.42 FixDisk V1.2 Quarterback Tools V1.5 Sectorama i think the most telling info i've gotten back so far is when using Quarterback Tools, i select "show volume space fragmentation" and it reports back "disk error reading bitmap". unfortunately, though qbtools tries to fix the problem (root block corrupt - reformat volume), it does not do so successfully. i reformat and have the same problems. my brain is starting to hurt....! paul theodoropoulos cassiel@well.sf.ca.us
arno@cbmnlu1.cbm.nl (Arno Griffioen) (06/24/91)
In article <25635@well.sf.ca.us> cassiel@well.sf.ca.us (Paul Theodoropoulos) writes: >format drive mdh0: name maxtor0 ffs noicons > >(without the 'quick' option), the format will lock up after anywhere from >14 cylinders to 130 cylinders formatted and verified (by "lock up" i mean >that the harddrive light locks on, the pointer locks up, everything. i have >to reboot.) if i format using the 'quick' option, it seems to work, and OK, I've seen this before. Did you turn reselect _OFF_???? The maxtor probably can't handle it (unlike a Quantum). If reselect is on and the drive doesn't support it, this is the exact result I saw... I believe it's in the extended options of the HDtoolbox. (btw. did you do a low-level?) >another oddity is that if i use HDToolBox, and simply repartition the drive, >after rebooting, the icon for the drive will come up titled with odd >characters after the device name (one's that i can't recreate with this >terminal program), like MDH0: followed by four 'u's with umlauts. That's normal. The data on the drive before formatting is bogus, so it just guesses a name and prepends the device name. You'll have to do a real format to get it right. >i think the most telling info i've gotten back so far is when using >Quarterback Tools, i select "show volume space fragmentation" and it >reports back "disk error reading bitmap". unfortunately, though qbtools It's not formatted, so that's correct... >my brain is starting to hurt....! Just try to turn reselect off and see if it helps. I think so... >paul theodoropoulos cassiel@well.sf.ca.us Bye Arno. -- Arno Griffioen | Commodore Nederland B.V. Unix Support Center Email: arno@cbmnlu1.cbm.nl | Tel: (+31) 020-5806748 or: arno@cbm.nl | "The light at the end of the tunnel... Is the headlamp of an oncoming train!"