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1996-07-10
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Number: A2TH080290U247
Subject: Problem With WD1007A BIOS
Date: September 4, 1990
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GENERAL
INFORMATION: This is a letter from the IMSP group. The letter was
dated January 10, 1990.
Jan. 10, 1990
Author: Russ White
Western Digital
PROBLEM: A bug was identified with BIOS revisions 2.1 and 2.2 of
the WD1007A and 1.51 of the WD1007V when installing
Novell NetWare 286. This problem has been corrected
in revision 2.3 of the 7A and revision 2.2 of the 7V.
This does not mean that earlier versions of the BIOS
will not work with Novell. However one should be aware
of the danger when installing a second drive or entering
the BIOS after the Novell installation is complete.
During the BIOS installation routines, a Novell compatible
bad block list is created. A signature is placed in
sector 16 of the boot track to notify the Novell
installation software that a bad block list exists.
This change was made to alleviate a bug in the Novell
COMPSURF utility that would cause it to fail when 14
errors are encountered (not previously marked in the
Novell bad block list). By identifying most of the media
defects during the BIOS installation the COMPSURF should
pass without the end user having to restart it every 14
errors.
The problem with the earlier versions of the BIOS is that
after the Novell installation is complete, sector 16 of
the BOOT track is used for file allocation. When the
BIOS is entered to install a second drive, upon exiting,
it would rewrite the signature of the first drive and
corrupt the Novell partition!
SOLUTION: To correct this problem the new BIOS will only write the
Novell signature if a low level format has been run
during the current BIOS session. This implies that the
defect list should be entered and/or the Surface Analysis
run before exiting the BIOS. If you exit the BIOS then go
back to the BIOS and run the Surface Analysis, it will
place test patterns over the Novell information.
The following steps should be taken when installing
Novell NetWare on a two drive installation with earlier
versions of the BIOS.
Solution 1
When configuring a new Novell installation for 2 drives:
1) Low level format drive 0.
2) Enter the drive manufacturer defect list for drive 0
(and/or surface verify)
3) Low level format drive 1
4) repeat step 2 for drive 1
5) set drive types and exit.
Solution 2
When adding a new drive to an existing Novell installation
1) Disconnect the existing Novell drive first
2) Connect the new drive as in a single drive configuration.
3) low level format
4) enter the drive manufacturers defect list for drive 0
(and/or surface verify)
5) Set drive type and exit.
6) Power down and install the original drive as drive 0 and
the new drive as drive 1
7) Boot the system Setup utility
8) Set both drives to TYPE 1
9) Continue with the normal NetWare installation
1007A BIOS Cross reference
Release Number Rev x=don't care
62-000217-xx1 1.0 ;did not support Novell defect list
62-000217-xx2 1.1 ;did not support Novell defect list
62-000217-xx3 2.1 ;Tech. Note applies.
62-000217-xx4 2.2 ;Tech. note applies
??-??????-??? 2.3 ;Fixed Novell problem
1007V BIOS cross reference
Release Number Rev
62-000279-xx0 1.51 ;Tech. Note Applies
62-000279-xx1 2.20 ;Fixed Novell problem
(X) This information was verified by Engineering.