baxter@zola.ics.uci.edu (Ira Baxter) (12/11/90)
I have an MFM Maxtor 2190 drive with 1224 cylinders. I naturaly want to use all 1224 cylinders. I am (technically cheating, but it works reliably) using an RLL WD1006SRV2 controller, and set the drive type to 1, and the cylinder count to 1224. The ISC ADDHARDDISK script notices the 1224 cylinders, and truncates it back to 1024 with some cryptic remark about BIOS limitations. Is there no way around this? How do ESDI, SCSI drives handle this? [I assume the "BIOS" limitations for such drives isn't present]. -- Ira Baxter
mschedlb@hawk.ulowell.edu (Martin J. Schedlbauer) (12/14/90)
In article <276472BB.15476@ics.uci.edu> baxter@zola.ics.uci.edu (Ira Baxter) writes: >I have an MFM Maxtor 2190 drive with 1224 cylinders. I naturaly want to >use all 1224 cylinders. I am (technically cheating, but it works >reliably) using an RLL WD1006SRV2 controller, and set the drive type >to 1, and the cylinder count to 1224. The ISC ADDHARDDISK script >notices the 1224 cylinders, and truncates it back to 1024 with >some cryptic remark about BIOS limitations. > >Is there no way around this? How do ESDI, SCSI drives handle this? >[I assume the "BIOS" limitations for such drives isn't present]. > >-- >Ira Baxter BIOS can't handle more than 1024 cylinders. You'll need a controller that does sector translation. This is what is typically done for ESDI drives, as they still have the same limitations. ESDI or ST506/MFM/RLL makes no difference to BIOS. ...Martin Martin Schedlbauer (mschedlb@ulowell.edu) Institute for Visualization and Perception Research Department of Computer Science University of Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854 (Tel: (508) 934-3612)
cmurcko@gvlf8-g.GVL.Unisys.COM (Chuck Murcko) (12/15/90)
In article <1600@ulowell.ulowell.edu>, mschedlb@hawk.ulowell.edu (Martin J. Schedlbauer) writes: |> In article <276472BB.15476@ics.uci.edu> baxter@zola.ics.uci.edu (Ira Baxter) writes: |> >I have an MFM Maxtor 2190 drive with 1224 cylinders. I naturaly want to |> >use all 1224 cylinders. I am (technically cheating, but it works |> >reliably) using an RLL WD1006SRV2 controller, and set the drive type |> >to 1, and the cylinder count to 1224. The ISC ADDHARDDISK script |> >notices the 1224 cylinders, and truncates it back to 1024 with |> >some cryptic remark about BIOS limitations. |> > |> >Is there no way around this? How do ESDI, SCSI drives handle this? |> >[I assume the "BIOS" limitations for such drives isn't present]. |> |> BIOS can't handle more than 1024 cylinders. You'll need a controller |> that does sector translation. This is what is typically done for ESDI |> drives, as they still have the same limitations. ESDI or ST506/MFM/RLL |> makes no difference to BIOS. |> It's my understanding that the 1024 cylinder limit exists in the ROM BIOS, which, because it's not reentrant, is of little or no use to Unices. Does this mean that ISC uses a similar setup in their partitioning software? My experience with ESIX is that >1024 cylinders is supported. I have 1224 and 1560 cylinder partitions on my disks, WD1007SE, no translation. Chuck
jrp@xtree.xtree.com (JIM PICKERING) (12/20/90)
In article <2674@sixhub.UUCP> davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes: >In article <1600@ulowell.ulowell.edu> mschedlb@hawk.ulowell.edu (Martin J. Schedlbauer) writes: > >| BIOS can't handle more than 1024 cylinders. You'll need a controller >| that does sector translation. This is what is typically done for ESDI >| drives, as they still have the same limitations. ESDI or ST506/MFM/RLL >| makes no difference to BIOS. > > SCO, ESIX, and (at least Dell) V.4 will handle >1023 very nice nicely. >We had the same problem with ISC earlier this year. The temporary fix >was to use only 2/3 of the disk, the long term solution was to use >another version of UNIX. >-- >bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen) > sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX > moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list >"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me Many MFM disk controllers have the WD1010 chip installed which cannot handle more than 1024 cylinders. MFM controllers with the WD2010 can. jim