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1991-04-07
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Preparation Tips for Hard Drives and NetWare 286 2.1x
By Mickey Applebaum
Wasatch Education Systems/NetWire Sysop
When you are considering the purchase of a computer for use as a
NetWare file server you are faced with many decisions. One of
the most important is what type of hard drive and controller to
use. There are many different types of hard drives and
controllers available today for the computer buyer to be aware
of. The January/February issue of NetWare Connection discussed
these different hard drive technologies as used by various
NetWare versions. When you purchase the particular drive
technology you want to use you'll want to know how to make the
best use of it. This article explains how to prepare different
drive types for use with NetWare 286 to get that best use.
Preparing drives involves two steps: doing a low-level format and
preparing a NetWare-readable drive identification stamp. For some
drive types, this process also includes enabling some type of
sector translation.
Formatting Drives with Novell's COMPSURF
Every version of 286-based NetWare includes a disk preparation
utility called COMPSURF. This utility provides a disk format
routine and a comprehensive surface analysis program. In early
releases of NetWare, prior to 286 2.10, COMPSURF was the only way
to prepare a drive for NetWare and ensure that all potentially
damaged areas of the disk surface were locked out. Today's newer
disk technologies, however, offer other alternatives. Now you
should only use COMPSURF's format routine to format drives
attached to a disk coprocessor board (DCB).
The COMPSURF routine checks first for a BIOS-defined drive type
and then for a DCB. If COMPSURF doesn't find the drive type or a
DCB, it will revert to a basic low-level format routine that
polls the disk for the number of cylinders, sectors, and heads
and then formats all available cylinders. Small computer system
interface (SCSI) drives, enhanced small disk interface (ESDI)
drives, and integrated drive electronics (IDE) drives embed
specific information on protected tracks on the disk. Running
COMPSURF on these drives can result in anything from inconvenient
problems to physical damage to the drive itself.
Because COMPSURF does not recognize that certain data must be
maintained on the protected tracks, it overwrites this data. The
data contained on the protected tracks may be nothing more than
the manufacturer's Bad Block table, or it could be as critical as
the track skewing factors and internal translation algorithms.
Track skewing is a technique where the low level format offsets
the first sector of a track by at least one sector compared to
the previous track. This allows the drive to read from track to
track in a single continuous operation without having to wait for
the disk to make a full revolution to get to the first sector on
the next track. Translation algorithms are disk embedded sector
translation formulas which the disk controller uses to enable
sector translation. This is used to keep the drive's logical
number of sectors below the DOS compatible partition limit of
1024 cylinders.
Early signs of problems were seen on the IBM PS/2 ESDI drives
when COMPSURF erased the IBM manufacturer's ID stamp and the
system's REFERENCE disk could not identify the drive type.
Formatting Drives with Third-Party Utilities
To avoid these problems, you should use the utilities provided
with the computer, the drive, or the host/controller to low-level
format your hard drives. For drives that are provided with value-
added disk drives (VADDs) as part of the utilities (such as the
Storage Dimensions LANStor drives), using these low-level
programs produces a NetWare-ready stamp, and no further disk
preparation work is needed. On other disks, such as ESDI drives
attached to Western Digital's 1007 controller, you may need to
run COMPSURF to stamp the disk NetWare ready.
To prepare hard drives attached to standard AT-type disk
controllers, you must access the disk preparation utility. Most
drives are provided with Disk Manager from On-Track or SpeedStor
from Storage Dimensions. You can use these utilities to do the
low-level format and surface analysis. Then run COMPSURF on the
drive. Answer "No" or "0" to the menu choices until COMPSURF
prompts you to confirm the previous answers. Answer "Yes" to
invoke the track 0 test and provide the disk with a NetWare-
readable Bad Block table and ID stamp.
This process will work with any standard AT-type disk controller
that uses a BIOS drive type identifier. Some of the newer AT disk
controllers do not use the Industry Standards Association disk
controller (ISADISK) command set or have different register
functions. These controllers make it difficult to prepare the
drive for NetWare.
Preparing ESDI Drives
The new ESDI sector translation controllers, which emulate an AT-
type controller, must be prepared in a slightly different
fashion. To prepare the drive with the low-level format and
surface analysis options from the controller's BIOS formatter
routine, you use the DEBUG program from DOS. If you are using a
Western Digital 1007V controller and the default memory address
jumper setting, you would invoke the formatter by issuing the
following command at the DEBUG program's prompt ( - ):
G=CC00:5
Details on preparing a drive with the Western Digital 1007V ESDI
controller are available on NetWire in the WD1007.TXT file
(Available in the data libraries on NetWire's NOVA forum). The
concepts explained in this file apply to any ESDI controller that
emulates a standard AT-type controller using the ISADISK drivers.
After completing the low-level format and surface tests, you must
run COMPSURF. Answer "No" or "0" to all of the menu choices until
COMPSURF prompts you if the chosen parameters are correct. Answer
"Yes" to invoke the track 0 test option, which creates a NetWare-
readable Bad Block table and puts a NetWare ID stamp on the
drive.
Some drives are exceptions: ESDI controllers that use VADDs to
operate in a NetWare environment include the CORE ESDI drives and
the Storage Dimensions LAN E series drives. The Adaptec 2322b
controller has some limitations in its sector translation
abilities. Patches developed to circumvent the problems are
available on NetWire (see the 2322.TXT and 2322PT.ARC files in
data library 14 on NOVA).
Preparing SCSI drives not attached to a DCB is the same as
preparing ESDI drives, except that most SCSI host adapters do not
invoke sector translation because their VADDs usually deal with
the NetWare interface. Low-level functions for each SCSI drive
are defined differently, but most are invoked through a software
utility. Again, the need to run COMPSURF to provide a NetWare ID
stamp depends on the preparation utility used.
SCSI drives attached to a Novell/ADIC DCB require slightly
different preparation. Manufacturers usually low-level format
these drives. Some manufacturers also format and surface test
SCSI hard drives for use with a DCB. If the instructions for your
drive specify that you do not need to run COMPSURF, do not
complete the following instructions.
If your drive has not been set to interface with a DCB, the first
step is to ensure that the drive is jumpered to disable parity
and to enable internal termination power. If these are not set
correctly, you may receive the message that the COMPSURF and
NETGEN utilities could not find any drives.
The next step is to run COMPSURF's surface analysis routine. In
this case, you would select the option to format the hard disk.
However, do not retain the Bad Block table, nor manually enter
the bad block information. Then set the program to do one
sequential surface test and the default number of I/O tests. You
can specify additional surface or I/O tests, but it is time
consuming.
Formatting IDE Drives
IDE drives, the latest technology in hard drives today, require
special care and handling for use with NetWare. Mistakes can
either reduce the capacity available or permanently damage the
drive. Like SCSI drives, IDE drives have embedded controllers and
information specific to that drive on protected tracks. IDE
drives are also similar to ESDI drives: both drives have a level
of sector translation built into their controllers. Because you
use the standard ISADISK driver with these drives, you must use a
BIOS drive table definition, which can severely limit the drive's
usable capacity. Some drives now have more than 200MG available,
but with the limitations of BIOS drive types, only 115MG can be
defined.
Due to these limitations in using IDE drives, some companies have
produced preparation programs that can specifically handle the
IDE drives in a NetWare environment. The most popular program is
Disk Manager -N from On-Track Computer Systems, Inc. This program
patches the NetWare disk drivers with the specific information
about the drives so that NetWare can use disk's complete
capacity. Disk Manager -N provides the drive ID stamp for NetWare
and performs the comprehensive surface tests. Disk Manager -N can
also patch ELS NetWare drivers for use with IDE and ESDI, as well
as other nonstandard Industry Standards Association (ISA) channel
disk drives.
Manufacturers low-level format IDE drives. No routines are
included to do a low-level format at a later date because track
skewing and disk sectoring information must be stored directly on
the disk. The manufacturers' intensive testing makes producing
portable software to format the disk infeasible. As a result,
running a program that does a low-level format on the drive, such
as COMPSURF, could cause severe and permanent damage to this
data, making the drive unrecognizable by its controller.
Formatting IBM PS/2 Computers
The disk preparation guidelines for IBM PS/2 computers are
consistent among the PS/2 line regardless of whether you have the
modified frequency modulation (MFM), ESDI, or new SCSI disk
interfaces. Since the PS/2 computers use the drive to store
information, this data must be maintained so the system will
recognize the disk when Advanced Diagnostics or other REFERENCE
disk utilities are run. To maintain this information, you should
only use the REFERENCE disk's Advanced Diagnostics utilities to
low-level format drives attached to a PS/2 disk interface.
To access the Advanced Diagnostics menu, boot the computer with
the working copy of the appropriate REFERENCE disk. When the main
menu appears, press Control A. You will then have the option of
doing the disk low-level format. This is one of the two available
menu choices in the Advanced Diagnostics menu.
The computer will do a low-level format of the disk and a
complete read/write surface verification. A protected track
routine stores the bad track information directly on the disk.
The Bad Block table is read when the computer is booted. This
process can take up to 12 hours per disk, depending on the size
and condition of the disk. After this process is completed, you
can run COMPSURF'S track 0 test. To run the track 0 test, answer
"No" or "0" to the menu choices until COMPSURF prompts you to
confirm the previous answer. This will put the Bad Block table
and a NetWare ID stamp on the disk.
If you are using the PS/2 model 30 as a file server and have
installed a Seagate drive, you may have to use the M30PAT.ZIP
patch from data library 8 on NOVA in NetWire. If your hard
drive's primary identification marker has been removed by
COMPSURF and you want to redo the low-level format, you will need
to download the file FMTPS2.ARC from data library 8 on NOVA in
NetWire. This file restores the primary defect list and rebuilds
the protected track drive information.
So, as you can see, there is no limit to the type of drive you
can use with NetWare given the proper driver and a correct format
procedure. This will allow you to have years of safe reliable
operation from your file server's hard disk with the least amount
of trouble.