glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (Glenn Geers) (04/28/91)
From article <78@overlf.UUCP>, by emanuele@overlf.UUCP (Mark A. Emanuele): > In article <513@pyrite.nj.pyramid.com>, bill@pyrite.nj.pyramid.com (Bill Pechter) writes: >> In article <3080@cirrusl.UUCP> Rahul Dhesi <dhesi@cirrus.COM> writes: >> > >> >How can ESIX even know whether the controller uses RLL? How can >> >anybody find this out without ripping the disk apart and analyzing the >> >bit-patterns stored on the platter? >> >> If there's more than the standard number of MFM sectors per track -- you lose. >> RLL does 25, ERLL (Perstor) does 31... So if the driver expects 1-17 only... >> you may not see your full disk sizes (at best). >> > > > > For all it's bad points, SCO DOES support all kinds of ODD Hard disks. > That's one of the reasons I still use it. My primary hard disk and controller are an ST4144R disk and a WD-1006vsr2 controller. The only trouble I've had is the notorious lock-up problem. I've cured this by formatting 2:1, so I lose a little speed but it's a lot better than crashing (anyway I've got a 209 Mb SCSI as my other drive :-) ). ESIX does detect that the primary drive is RLL. That's ESIX rev. D - the only version I've used. Cheers, Glenn > -- > Mark A. Emanuele > V.P. Engineering Overleaf, Inc. > 218 Summit Ave Fords, NJ 08863 > (908) 738-8486 emanuele@overlf.UUCP -- ___________________________________________________________________________ Glenn Geers | "So when it's over, | we're back to people. Department of Theoretical Physics | Just to prove that human touch The University of Sydney | can have no equal." Sydney NSW 2006 Australia | - Basia Trzetrzelewska, 'Prime Time TV' | Phone: +61 2 692-3241 (voice) |_________________________________________ +61 2 660-2903 (fax) | | glenn@qed.physics.su.oz.au | #include <standard_disclaimer.h> | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
kdenning@pcserver2.naitc.com (Karl Denninger) (04/28/91)
In article <1991Apr28.004009.17398@metro.ucc.su.OZ.AU> glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (Glenn Geers) writes: >My primary hard disk and controller are an ST4144R disk and a WD-1006vsr2 >controller. The only trouble I've had is the notorious lock-up problem. >I've cured this by formatting 2:1, so I lose a little speed but it's a >lot better than crashing (anyway I've got a 209 Mb SCSI as my other drive :-) ). >ESIX does detect that the primary drive is RLL. That's ESIX rev. D - the only >version I've used. The "detection" in this case is simply looking in the BIOS DPB (disk parameter block) after the self-test (or POST) has completed. The disk parameters are in there. Any OS which does this can easily determine geometry on the fly. One of my MAJOR complaints with Novell 2.x was that it didn't do that -- thus forcing you to either run with their idea of a "standard" disk drive or buy a driver from someone. Completely silly and outrageous. Any 1003-compatible disk I/O board (MFM, RLL, ESDI) at the register level which properly sets the DPB should work with most of the Unix releases out there. I'd very much like to hear of any which don't look in the DPB, and instead go directly to the ROMs (this is what Novell did). -- Karl Denninger - AC Nielsen, Bannockburn IL (708) 317-3285 kdenning@nis.naitc.com "The most dangerous command on any computer is the carriage return." Disclaimer: The opinions here are solely mine and may or may not reflect those of the company.