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4DR-INFO.TXT
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1988-03-23
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10KB
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209 lines
Sparta PCBoard
Hard Drive Conference
PERSTOR Conference
(201) 729-7056
The following text was prepared by Darwin Collins at my request so
that you could have some first hand feedback on installation of the
co-resident driver to allow two Perstor 200 series controllers to
be installed in the same computer. I have reviewed the procedures
used and described by Darwin and find them to be succinct, straight
forward and very clear.
Darwin, my thanks for preparing the text file.
Richard Driggers
Sysop - Sparta PCBoard
March 12, 1988
Created :03/12/88
An installers view on what it took to get an XT system to recognize
Four (4) HardDisk drives using two Perstor PS180 controllers.
Equipment:
2 New Perstor PS180 Controllers
2 New Miniscribe 3425 20Meg(MFM) Drives
1 IBM Turbo XT Clone 640K RAM 150Watt Power Supply (about 2+yrs old)
1 AST 2Meg RamPage board
configured as 1 Meg RAMDrive and 1 Meg Extended RAM
2 Seagate ST238 30Meg(RLL) Drives
1 Expansion Case with 60watt Power Supply
(This case cost us $100, but next time we will buy
a clone XT case and buy a Power Supply for it.
The reason this case was bought was to move the
Hot running ST238 drives out of the XT case.)
2 30Pin Cables (2 Drive Twisted Pair Cables)
4 20Pin Cables (one for each drive)
Misc parts: Screws to hold in the HardDrives.
Manual: The supplied manual that came with the controllers
Preliminary Documentation for the 4-Drive Device Driver
Software: OnTrack's DiskManager vr 3.1
IBM DOS 3.1
Recommendation:
Our system had two ST238's online for about a year.
About 6 months ago, we bought an expansion case to move
the Hot running drives out of the XT case.
We had 2 Miniscribe 3425 that were in storage because
normally it is not possible to hook more than 2
drives up concurrently.
Thus, for us, the Perstor Controllers were perfect !
We could install the two Miniscribes into the XT case,
keep the Seagates in their Expansion Case, plug the
two controllers in, and be running upto 4 Harddrives
concurrently.
Currently, we can not use a disk cache but we are so happy
that we can access upto 4 drives, that spring time is fine
for waiting for the official release of the PS180 device driver.
Problems:
We had bought two controller cards, so had two sets of manuals.
One of the manuals had blank pages in the essential areas of
setting the jumpers. So, this could have caused a problem,
if we had had only one manual that had those blank pages.
We are running a AST 2Meg Rampage board also in the system.
We could not get a Disk Cache program from Mace Utilities
to work. If this was caused by the drivers in the Rampage
board interfering with the PS180 driver, and resulting in
the lockups when Mace's disk cache was used, I don't know.
If Mace's disk cache is not used, the system runs fine.
If it is used, then the system will lock up sooner or later
while accessing any of the Harddrives.
==== What we did =====
Before: The XT system had two 30Meg ST238's hooked up to
a Adaptec 2070A that provided 60Megs of storage.
step 1 - Hooked up a Tape Backup mechanism to backup the data
off of the two ST238's.
(Took a long time using an Irwin 10Meg Tape Drive)
- Powered down the XT system
- Disconnected the cables from the Adaptec controller so
to remove the controller from the system.
(This controller was hooked upto two ST238s, which were
housed in an external expansion box.)
- Picked up 1 Perstor controller card, and accompying manual.
For our drives) we needed to remove all jumpers from the
JMP6 block except for the one that was across pins 13 & 14.
Checked to make sure the jumper was on the JMP4 block.
Checked to make sure that there was No jumper on the JMP5 block.
- Inserted this controller card into the XT system and connected
the Harddrives cables to it. (The connecting of the cables
is similar as hooking up other types of Harddisk controllers)
Double checked, to see that the Pin 1 of the ports and the
Red Edge of the Cables matched.
step 2 - Stuck a system diskette into the floppy drive and turned On
the XT system. Before, bootup, a message appeared saying
that the two Harddrives had not been low-level formatted yet.
(A verbal sentence, instead of the 1701 that other's display.)
- After bootup, we removed system disk, and inserted the PS180
utility diskette that came with the controller cards.
- Typed PS2FMT , which is a program that will low level
format the drives. You would need to use this program
once for each drive, so which is twice.
- We used an interleave of 4, and got a Data Transfer rate of
about 200 or so. The program was very informative and we
had no problem in telling it to low-level the drive.
Repeated the procedure to low-level format the other drive.
- Loaded OnTrack's Disk Manager into the system, and accessed
it by DM/M to partition and high-level format both drives
with each a 40Meg partition. Didn't have any problems with
using Disk Manager to partition the drives.
step 3 - After setting up both drives with their 40meg partitions,
and exiting DM, we powered down the system.
- We disconnected the data cables that ran from the two ST238s
to the controller. Disconnected the power plug that ran to
the external expansion case that housed the two ST238s.
- Installed the two Miniscribe 3425's into the XT system's
2 vacant half-height slots.
- Connected the two-drive cables from the two Miniscribes to
the PS180 controller.
- Repeated the same procedure (Steps 2 to 3) that we had used
to low-level format the two ST238s.
( Except for that we partitioned the first Drive (0), has
a 20Meg DOS (Logical C:) and a 20Meg (Logical D:). )
- Powered down the system. Left the Data cables hooked upto
the two Miniscribes.
- Took the second controller out of the box.
For us, we took all jumpers off the JMP6 block except for
the one that was across pins 13 & 14.
- Took the jumper off of JMP4 block and put it on the JMP5
block. (again, result: No jumper on JMP4, Yes jumper on JMP5)
(Result of this is dis-enabling the BIOS, and selecting
a different Port address.)
- Inserted the card into the system, and connectted the data
cables that ran from the two ST238 Harddrives.
Double checked, to see that the Pin 1 of the ports and the
Red Edge of the Cables matched. Plugged the power for the
expansion case back into the switch box.
- Powered up the system, with a system diskette.
After bootup, we changed the config.sys, to reflect this:
DEVICE=DMDRVR.BIN
DEVICE=PS200IO.BIN
DEVICE=ANSI.SYS
FILES=20
BUFFERS=14
...etc.
Copied and then verified that the Device Drivers were
available on the system diskette.
- Rebooted the system. Upon booting up, the screen will
display the the Perstor Device Driver has found and
recognized the additional 2 drives.
- Copied all device drivers and the config.sys over to the
HardDisk Drive C: And did other checks to make sure
that all drives (and logical drives) were being accessed
normally and correctly.
- It is recommended that before you restore your data, to
run a Harddisk analyzer to check for any bad sectors.
(Just to play it safe)
- Store the booting system disk for backup purposes.
(for a time, that you accidently wipe out your root
directory, you would have a bootable system diskette
so that you can easily restore your device drivers.)
- That was it.
We rebooted the system up, and accessed all FOUR Harddisks
for a total of 160 Megabytes of data.
Before with a maximum of 2 Drives :
2 drives x 30meg(RLL) = 60 Megs
After with 4 Drives and using ARLL :
4 drives x 40Meg(ARLL) = 160 Megs
Summary: It took us about 13 hours from start to finish.
I estimate that by far the majority of the time was spent
backing up 60Megs of Data from the (then) two 30meg drives.
Time was also spent waiting for the system to format the
4 Harddrives and partition them.
We had no problems with understanding the documentation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have any further questions or problems that we can help you
with, we can be located at:
Ken Bachman Sysop of Silicon City RBBS data (214) 641-2537
Darwin Collins Irving, Texas Home (214) 252-5681
Author of a few (worthless?) Doorgames and this text
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