kncarp@nicsn1.monsanto.com (06/14/91)
I managed to get my Adaptec 1542B to drive my two Emulex MD21 controlled disk.
The key was to disable the BIOS and strickly use the driver code. Although this
works, it is less than perfect. Any suggestions on how to address the described
problems would be appreciated.
1) Drive formatting and verifying:
The 1542B BIOS contains the format and verify routines for attached drives.
In order to be able to use these routines I needed to do the following:
A) Address and terminate a single drive as SCSI-ID 0.
B) Enable BIOS (default) and boot machine with cable disconnected.
C) Connect cable at DOS prompt and enter DEBUG.
D) Run format and verify.
E) Goto A) for second drive.
Comments: It appears the SCSI RESET issued by the BIOS upon startup
causes the 1542 to hang (Red light stays on). By disconnecting the
cable until after the BIOS is done with its startup, the RESET never
gets to the disk and the controller is happy. Unfortunetly, the only
thing one can do after that processing is run the DEBUG or DMA test.
2) Drive partitioning:
A) Disable BIOS via jumper and install drivers in config.sys. Make sure
the /NORST flag is on the primary driver (ASPI4DOS).
B) Cable everything up and reboot machine.
C) Run AFDISK for each drive - just like the manual says.
3) Drive Use:
A) Simply reboot after all partitions are defined and the new drives will
be available.
Problems:
Since the BIOS is disabled, due to the RESET problem (solved with the software
drivers /NORST flag), it appears that the INT 13 hook is never installed. I
saw a flag (/I) that would allow me to force the hook not to be installed, but
nothing that worked the reverse way. Although the disk appear to function
under DOS (4.01 BTW), several problems exist.
A) CHKDSK won't work.
B) SuperPCK disk caching won't work - complains about unknown physical device
for the SCSI disk, continues to work fine on the other internal disk.
IMHO this is a major hit.
C) Diagnostic routines like Spinrite and QAPLUS don't know the disk exist.
It would be nice to have something be able to perform a detail surface
check (like Spinrites 84 patterns).
D) Having Format and Verify in BIOS only make future expansion painful,
especially for SCID-ID 2-6.
Comments please.
Kevin Carpenter
kncarp@nicsn1.monsanto.comherbing@netmbx.UUCP (Uwe Herbing) (06/16/91)
kncarp@nicsn1.monsanto.com writes: >I managed to get my Adaptec 1542B to drive my two Emulex MD21 controlled disk. [stuff deleted] >Problems: >B) SuperPCK disk caching won't work - complains about unknown physical device > for the SCSI disk, continues to work fine on the other internal disk. > IMHO this is a major hit. Try to install PCKWIK.SYS directly after ASPIDISK.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. This works for me, although the manual says, the PCKWIK.SYS driver is for Bernoullli drives, but it apparently makes SUPERPCK.COM caching a drives, even if does'nt know its physical adress. >C) Diagnostic routines like Spinrite and QAPLUS don't know the disk exist. > It would be nice to have something be able to perform a detail surface > check (like Spinrites 84 patterns). I think to my best knowledge, that you have to live with this, my Norton Utilities cannot read the partition table from a drive handled by ASPIDISK.SYS, maybe this limitation exists, because the guys at Adaptec designed ASPIDISK.SYS to handle everything beyond the normal two fixed- disks, recognized by DOS. >D) Having Format and Verify in BIOS only make future expansion painful, > especially for SCID-ID 2-6. There is a utility, i got with a package with Adaptec Utilties written by Roy Neese, its called AHAUTILS.EXE and performs exactly like the ROM-based Utilities, with the exception, that Quit does not reboot, but brings you back to the DOS prompt. Kai -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kai-Uwe Herbing | phone 49-30-3126145 | I don't claim any Weimarer Strasse 28 | | warranty for tips D-1000 Berlin 12 | herbing@netmbx | tricks, hints and Fed.Rep.of Germany | herbing%netmbx@db0tui6.bitnet | suggestions given -------------------------------------------------------------------------------