bill@unixland.uucp (Bill Heiser) (02/25/91)
I have a Maxtor XT-8760S that I bought in "untested" condition at a flea market. I figured out how to get the SCSI id set, and put it in line in my system as follows (I bypassed my tapedrive for this test). external connector ! \/ ###### -----> ###### -----> ####### Adaptec Maxtor CDC Wren 1542b XT-8760S 94171-307 terminators no terms. terminators. SCSI id 1 SCSI id 0 The machine boots, the Adaptec bios finds the drives. When I try to run scsicntl, it bombs, saying something like this: Read Capacity: hard Drive 1 error reported sense key 03: medium error error code 31: format failed When I try to look at the drives using debug (g=dc00:06), it shows the following configuration: Target LUN Vendor ID Product ID ------ ---- --------- ---------- 0 0 CDC 94171-9 1 0 MAXTOR XT-8760S JOHS When I try to run the format routine, the following happens: TIMEOUT ERROR SCSI MODE SELECT COMMAND When I try to run the verify routine, the following happens: TIMEOUT ERROR SCSI READ CAPACITY COMMAND What is the most likely cause of these errors? Is there a possible configuration (jumper) error? There are no jumpers in place on the back of the drive except for the one I installed to make the SCSI id = 1. If the drive needs work, does this sound like something that can be fixed? Any approximation on what it should cost? I'm not upset about this, as I bought the drive in an "unknown" state. I figured for what I paid for it, even if it does need repair, it's probably still lots cheaper than a "new" or "reconditioned" one, at least based on what I've seen for prices on used ones in misc.forsale.computers. One other question: should "any" electronics parts house carry the terminators for this drive (in-line pins, 8 pins), or do I need to contact Maxtor? Any tips, hints, or suggestions regarding this situation would be most appreciated. The guy who sold me the drive said I could contact him to have it repaired if necessary, but I'd rather gather the collective expertise of the net before I jump into anything. Thanks in advance! Bill -- home: ...!{uunet,bloom-beacon,esegue}!world!unixland!bill bill@unixland.uucp The Think_Tank BBS & Public Access Unix 508-655-3848 (2400) 508-651-8723 (9600-HST) 508-651-8733 (9600-PEP-V32) other: heiser@world.std.com
neese@adaptx1.UUCP (02/27/91)
>/* ---------- "Maxtor drive problems (LONG)" ---------- */ > >I have a Maxtor XT-8760S that I bought in "untested" condition at >a flea market. I figured out how to get the SCSI id set, and put it >in line in my system as follows (I bypassed my tapedrive for this test). > > external > connector > ! > \/ >###### -----> ###### -----> ####### >Adaptec Maxtor CDC Wren >1542b XT-8760S 94171-307 >terminators no terms. terminators. > SCSI id 1 SCSI id 0 > >The machine boots, the Adaptec bios finds the drives. When I try >to run scsicntl, it bombs, saying something like this: > >Read Capacity: hard Drive 1 error reported >sense key 03: medium error >error code 31: format failed >STUFF DELETED< It sounds like the drive cannot find the firmware on the media. This particular Maxtor has a small amount of firmware resident on the drive ROM to get it started and it copies the real firmware off of the disk into RAM on the controller. If the drive cannot get the firmware off of the disk, you would get the errors you described. One of two problems exist in this scenario. The blocks on the media, where the firmware is located have gone bad, or the disk head that reads the media has gone bad, in either case, the disk is not able to locate/read the firmware off of the disk. To correct this error, you would have to replace the HDA assembly. The other scenario is; The HDA controller board is gone away and needs to be replaced. I don't think this would be the problem as the controller is alive enough to report problems. >One other question: should "any" electronics parts house carry the >terminators for this drive (in-line pins, 8 pins), or do I need to contact >Maxtor? They are standard SIP resistor terminator packs. 220/120 ohm. Roy Neese Adaptec Senior SCSI Applications Engineer UUCP @ neese@adaptex uunet!cs.utexas.edu!utacfd! {nominil,merch,cpe}!adaptex!neese uunet!mlite!adaptex!neese
thad@public.BTR.COM (Thaddeus P. Floryan) (02/27/91)
In article <283400056@adaptx1> neese@adaptx1.UUCP writes: > >>One other question: should "any" electronics parts house carry the >>terminators for this drive (in-line pins, 8 pins), or do I need to contact >>Maxtor? > >They are standard SIP resistor terminator packs. 220/120 ohm. Uh, don't you mean "220/330 Ohm"? While on this subject, is there an archive site for SCSI material that's been posted to the Usenet? Reason I'm asking is that I've a bunch of goodstuff that I'm reposting every month or so to some other newsgroups regarding SCSI and that task is becoming arduous, so I'd like to put it "somewhere" where others can get at it easily. Suggestions welcome, even posting to this newsgroup from which an archiver can more-easily grab it than I could email it. Thad Floryan [ thad@btr.com (OR) {decwrl, mips, fernwood}!btr!thad ]
root@netdev.comsys.COM (Superuser) (02/28/91)
In article <283400056@adaptx1> neese@adaptx1.UUCP writes: >>/* ---------- "Maxtor drive problems (LONG)" ---------- */ >>I have a Maxtor XT-8760S that I bought in "untested" condition at >>Read Capacity: hard Drive 1 error reported >>sense key 03: medium error >>error code 31: format failed >>STUFF DELETED< >It sounds like the drive cannot find the firmware on the media. This more deleted. I beleive the format command was interrupted mid-stream and the 'firmware' area of the disk is partially or completely cleared. We had a occaision to see the exact same error, and the same conditions. In fact the same drives. Perhaps Roy can enlighten me if this is not possible. The recourse is to return the drive to the factory, unless there is a format data recovery proceedure available via Roy's scsicntl contributions - which I beleive are very nice - thanks to Roy's work. -Alex