Disk Formatting Problems

[Anthony A. Datri]

In article <19534 at shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> lui at cs.ucla.edu (Stephen Lui) writes:
>I had the exact same problem. The parameters in /etc/format.dat are wrong.
>Replace the Maxtor entry with:

In a similar vein, I recently discovered that a scsi disk we got from
Artecon has the label "Maxtor EXT-1475" on it.  The machine came from
Artecon years ago with 3.2 on it, I had to put 4.0 onto it.  I managed to
do it without touching the label, thank the deity.  All I could figure out
about the label on it was

cyl 1218 alt 2 hd 7 sec 33

and it seems to have an Adaptec ACB4000 on it.  I went into format (off
the tape) to get the defect list, and format said it had 1220 physical
cylinders -- 1218 + the 2 alt?  The beast has about 32 errors in its list.

Now I check the other Artecon disk we have, and it's a Wren III, but with
different params than format.dat:

sd0:  <CDC WREN III cyl 963 alt 2 hd 9 sec 33>

format.dat says:

#disk_type = "CDC Wren III 94161-155" \
#       : ctlr = MD21 : fmt_time = 4 \
#       : ncyl = 965 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 967 : nhead = 9 : nsect = 35 \
#       : rpm = 3597 : bpt = 20880
Sigh.
-- 
Anthony A. Datri @SysAdmin(Stepstone Corporation) aad at stepstone.com stpstn!aad