[comp.sys.3b1] HD problems..

andersom@spot.Colorado.EDU (Marc Anderson) (02/16/91)

Recently I purchased a miniscribe 3085 harddrive because my old 20 megger
died on me...  For some reason, the diagnostics software doesn't
recognize my new drive.  (RE-CAL errors/etc, when attempting to format it
under the "other drives" menu...  (giving the number of cylinders and stuff))

I'm running this on a pretty old 7300 (not 3b1)..  Any ideas?

Could it be my power supply?  (can I use an external power supply or
something?)


thanks....  

(if following up to this, could you also send your response in e-mail
if possible?  thanks a lot...  [andersom@spot.Colorado.EDU])

-Marc

thad@public.BTR.COM (Thaddeus P. Floryan) (02/19/91)

In article <1991Feb15.202539.29865@csn.org> andersom@spot.Colorado.EDU (Marc Anderson) writes:
andersom@spot.Colorado.EDU (Marc Anderson) in <1991Feb15.202539.29865@csn.org>
writes:

	Recently I purchased a miniscribe 3085 harddrive because my old 20
	megger died on me...  For some reason, the diagnostics software
	doesn't recognize my new drive.  (RE-CAL errors/etc, when attempting
	to format it under the "other drives" menu...  (giving the number of
	cylinders and stuff))

	I'm running this on a pretty old 7300 (not 3b1)..  Any ideas?

	Could it be my power supply?  (can I use an external power supply or
	something?)

You cannot fully utilize a 3085 without also installing a WD2010 to replace
the WD1010 disk controller chip, and you NEED the enhanced s4diag disk to
properly format and prepare a disk for more than 1024 cylinders.  The 3085
has 7 heads and 1170 cylinders.

As previously posted, not all 3B1/UNIXPC systems will "take" a WD2010 chip
until they have the "DRUN Patch" applied.  The patch requires essentially
changing one resistor and re-routing two signals; easy if one is not all-
thumbs but NOT recommended if your idea of a soldering iron is a blowtorch
or a 250W "gun"! :-)

Now that we have "comp.sys.3b1", maybe I should repost it (the DRUN Patch) or
send it off to Dave for inclusion in comp.sources.3b1 or to Lenny for archving
at osu-cis; comments invited.

As far as power supplies go, the 3085 is probably using LESS power than your
old 20MB clunker, and I've successfully run a 3085 in a 7300 using the stock
power supply for over two years now; it's the machine I bring to the users'
group meetings.  You may wish to verify/adjust the voltages if they're out of
the range [5.25 -- 4.75] or [12.6 -- 11.4] for the +5 and +12 respectively; I
prefer running at 5.1 and 12.2.

Thad Floryan [ thad@btr.com (OR) {decwrl, mips, fernwood}!btr!thad ]