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Shareware Supreme Volume 6 #1
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SCSI-1.ZIP
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SCSI-1.TXT
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1991-03-09
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Questions and Answers on SCSI drives from the Ontrack BBS - 10/24/90
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QUESTION:
Hi,
I recently purchased a 80meg quantum HD and installed it internally
into my MAC SE. There seems to be a little problem with it. Every-
time I write to the drive, it will alter the video image ever so
slightly (like a magnet to the screen). I think (but really don't
know) that the drive is to close to the pict. tube. According to
the instructions it says to mount it under the screen. Is there any
shielding I can get for it or am I doing something wrong or what?
If anyone has any suggestions or comments I would appreciate a write
back.
ANSWER:
I have heard others state that the Quantum hard disks seem to
give off this interference. I have also heard it said that a solution
is to turn the drive around 180 degrees, so the back of it is pointing
forward.
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QUESTION:
I am using an Adaptec 1542A SCSI host adapter in my PC, with a Seagate
ST1096N 80 Meg drive. I would like to share the drive with my
Macintosh. The physical connection is not a problem, since the 1542A has
an external SCSI port which can attach to the Mac SCSI port. The
problem is partitioning the drive.
I am using DM 4.0 on the PC and DM for Mac 2.02 on the Mac. I was
surprised to find that the two programs do not share the same partition
table. Is there any way to get one of the programs to look at the same
partition table the other is using? Or is there some way to set up
Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs)?
ANSWER:
A short answer to a long question... NO. The two operating
systems do not share the same partition structure.
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QUESTION:
I Am using a MAxtor 8760 SCSI drive and a Novell DCB It will not
compsurf. Do you have a driver for it.
ANSWER:
For the Novell DCB you must use the Novell DCB VADD. The Novell
DCB VADD will support only a limited number of drives. You are
restricted to those drives. One of the selections within this VADD is
for a generic SCSI drive, you could try selecting that one. Don't
really know if it will work or not. We don't have a driver for the DCB
as such.
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QUESTION:
My organization at work has requested that I put together a
system for them and I am having some problems getting it going.
The computer is a genuine IBM AT in a rack-mount case.
There are two disk controllers. The first is some type of
MFM controller which came with the computer. This controller
has a 1.2 meg floppy, an IBM "Type 2" 20 meg fixed disk, and a
Seagate 20 meg fixed disk.
The second controller is a Future Domain SCSI controller,
model number TMC-871. A Micropolis model 1578-15 327 meg drive
is connected to it.
When the system boots the "Future Domain" banner appears
from the BIOS and the Micropolis drive is identified by the SCSI
controller. However this drive is not recognized by DOS. The
SETUP software will not allow me to configure any more than 2
drives.
Taking out the MFM controller and booting the system with
just the SCSI controller causes the computer to issue a "No
drives found" message and invoke cassette BASIC.
Is there any kind of driver available that will allow DOS
to recognize three fixed disks on the same computer? If not,
how can I get DOS to recognize one fixed disk on the MFM
controller and one fixed disk on the SCSI controller at the same
time?
ANSWER:
Disk Manager will see this SCSI drive as a third drive all by it's
self. If you go into Disk Manager in manual mode, (DM/M), and then go
to the config menu, you should see the two MFM drives and the SCSI drive
as the third. All drives should be appearing as standard. All you need
to do then is to go to the partitioning menu and create a write/read
partition on this third drive, prepare the partition, exit Disk Manager,
and make sure the Disk Manager device driver (DMDRVR.BIN) is called from
your CONFIG.SYS file on drive C:. If you are having problems with this
procedure, you should give us a call on the tech line at (612)937-2121
so we can talk directly. Please be in front of the computer when you
call so we can walk thru DM and see what's going on.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUESTION:
After removing the "zero-wait" jumper on the controller and following
your instructions I finally got DOS to talk to the third drive. Now
there is only one problem remaining.
It appears that there are several "bad" spots on the drive that are not
allocated out of the FAT. I need some kind of program to write data to
this disk and test to see if each sector is good.
I tried running the DIAG program on the Disk Manager diskette, but the
first thing that DIAG does is ask me what drive. Pressing "3" is not
allowed, only drives 1 and 2 can be tested.
Is there a version of DIAG that will test a third drive, or is this not
allowed for some hardware reason?
ANSWER:
You're right, DIAG won't talk to a third drive. If you prepare
the SCSI partition again, it should see these bad spots and map them out
by it's self. The SCSI drive is supposed to handle defect managment
internally.
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QUESTION:
PURCHASED A MINISCRIBE 100MB SCSI DRIVE (MODEL #3130S) WHITH ONTRACK
FIXED DISK INSTALLATION SOFTWARE (5.25" DISK). THIS DISK IS DEFECTIVE.
CANNOT SEEM TO GET A HOLD OF YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE PEOPLE TO GET
ANOTHER
COPY. IS IT POSSIBLE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY, AS THIS IS A RATHER URGENT
MATTER? WE ARE USING AN ADAPTEC AHA-1540A/1542A CONTROL CARD. THANKS.
ANSWER:
If you need to have your Disk Manager disk replaced, you will
have to contact our sales department at (800)752-1333 and speak with
them. We can not allow Disk Manager to be downloaded for legal reasons,
(it's not public domain). On the other hand, SCSI drives are low level
formatted at the factory and always appear as a standard drive to the
system, so you could use FDISK alone to partition it and FORMAT to high
level format it if you need to. If you want a large (>32M) partition
under 3.x DOS, then you do need Disk Manager, and should contact sales
to arrange a replacement.
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QUESTION:
I cannot install my 8760S on the Adaptec 1542B controller.
I have my Drive Type to 0 b4 installation, and when dm/ / comes up, it
gives me NO CMOS. What should I do. I have Disk Manager 4.01.
ANSWER:
You will need to use DM/P/M, and then go directly to the
Partitioning menu and partition the drive. Or you could just use DOS
4.01 to partition it directly. This is because a SCSI drive ALWAYS
appears as a standard drive to the system, and usually has a translation
mode of some kind to make the drive appear to have less than 1024
cylinders, so DOS can take care of the partitioning all by it's self.
The /P parameter that I mentioned tells Disk Manager that there are no
AT register set compatible controllers in the system, so CMOS won't be
used.
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QUESTION:
I HAVE A AST BRAVO 286 I'M INSTALLING AN SEAGATE MOD.2125N THIS WAS A
FORMER IMP. DRIVE I'M USING A WD101 SCSI CONTROLLER BUT CAN NOT GET THIS
DRIVE TO FORMAT MORE THAN 80M IT'S A 110M DRIVE AND IS TO HAVE 1544 CYL.
AND 3 HEADS BUT ITS ONLY SEEING 1024 CLY. AND 3 HEADS.........I HAVE
TRIED DM FOR IMPRIMS DRIVES WITH THE SWBIOS COMMAND BUT IT STILL WILL
NOT WORK.
ANSWER:
I am not familiar with either the ST2125N or the WD101 host
adptr. In general though, it is the host adapter's responsibility to
translate the drive down to below 1024 cyls, but at a higher number of
heads and/or sectors per track. If this is not happening, then a call
to Western Digital would be in order. A SCSI is always standard to the
system. You can't manually change the parameters, or use non-standard
parameters. You use what the host adapter tells you the parameters of
the drive are, and nothing else.
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QUESTION:
I have a Seagate 296N hard disk w/ST02 controller installed operating
under DOS 3.3. I am wondering if I can add a second hard disk, a
Seagate 4096 MFM w/Western Digital controller in the same computer. I
use DM Version 4.0. Would appreciate an answer and/or suggestions. The
reason I want to mix the two is I have both drives and I would prefer
not to buy another. Thanks!!
ANSWER:
I am not familiar with the ST02 SCSI host adapter. But if you
only have two hard drives, then they ought to be able to co-reside as
far as I know. Seagate would really be the better place to ask this
question of. Their number is (800)468-3472.
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QUESTION:
Appreciate the open forum. I would be curious about SCSI
technology: do you only have a VADD for DM-N or is there one for the
Adaptec 1542 and standard DM? I've hardly had any contact with IDE
drives so the SCSI is the big one for me.
ANSWER:
We have a VADD for the ACB1542 for Netware 2.1x that would need to
be linked into both Netware and DMN for an install using this host
adapter. VADDs are host adapter specific. We have VADDs for the
ACB1542, the WD7000, and the Rancho Tech. RTXT-100 & the RTAT-100. The
earliest version of both Netware & DMN that can address SCSI drives with
the help of a VADD are Advanced Netware 2.1x & DMN v3.x. ELS versions
of Netware CANNOT ever use a SCSI drive (there's no way to link in the
VADD as a disk driver).
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QUESTION:
I have recently received Diskmanager N version 3.10
I would like to use this with the WD FAST 7000 and the OMTI 822 SCSI
drives. The bulletin is a little cryptic so I will try the software out
to see if I can follow what you meant. I would prefer that your ads are
a little more specific about the VADD. Thanks for setting up this system
for us to call in on.
ANSWER:
A VADD is a Value Added Device Driver. It allows NetWare to
talk to a non AT Register set controller such as a SCSI host adapter. A
VADD is host adapter specific. The same VADD won't work on both of the
host adapters that you mentioned. We offer a VADD for the WD7000, one
for the Adaptec 1542/1640, and VADDs for the Rancho Technology RT1000,
RT10-AT, and RT10-XT. You will have to link the appropriate VADD into
both NetWare and DMN before either one will be able to talk to the host
adapter. VADDs can only be linked into 2.1x versions of ADVANCED
NetWare (not any ELS versions). Therefore a SCSI drive cannot be used
in any ELS version, or versions of NetWare prior to v2.1x.
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QUESTION:
I will have literally thousands of small files (ie, less than 1k) on my
drive. What would be the best way to format/partition the drive so that
there is as little wasted space as possible? I am willing to trade some
performance for some capacity.
ANSWER:
A partition greater than 32 Meg will have a larger cluster size. A
cluster is your minimum allocation unit of space on the drive. So for
example, if you have a 30 Meg partition on the drive, your cluster size
is 2k. Therefore, any file on the drive takes up at least 2k. If it's
a 3k file, it would take up 4k of space. If, on the other hand, you
have a 150 Meg partition on the drive, you would end up with a 16k
cluster size. This could leave you with alot of slack space on the
drive. (Each file would take up at least 16k of space.) If you wish to
keep your cluster size down to 2k (that's the minimum), then keep your
partition sizes between 17 and 32 Meg. (If you go below 17 Meg in size,
you'll get a 4k partition.) The break points are as follows (under DOS
3.x):
1 - 16 Meg = 4k cluster size
16 - 32 Meg = 2k cluster size
32 - 64 Meg = 4k cluster size
64 -128 Meg = 8k cluster size
128-256 Meg = 16k cluster size
256-512 Meg = 32k cluster size
Disk Manager also has a /V switch available that gives you some manual
controller over your cluster sizes. (You can make them smaller than the
defaults shown above.) But if you do, beware that there are some
programs that won't deal with a nonstandard cluster size; starting with
CHKDSK.
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QUESTION:
- While installing a driver with my 40 Mb Quantum ProDrive 40S (which
lies inside my POWERDrive bought from Hard Drives International), I have
the option to park the head every time I perform a system shut-down.
SHOULD I TURN THIS ON? I would like to have auto park for my hard drive
as it sure sounds like an extra precaution, but are there any ADVERSE
effects to very frequent parking (=every time I finish up a working
session and choose "Shut down" from the desktop "Special" menu on my
Macintosh Plus, with system 6.0.4 and 2.5 Mb of memory)???
- THIS ONE WILL CHALLENGE THE TECHNICALLY MINDED: the driver that is
installed on the hard disk after formatting seems to be updateable from
inside the ONTRACK Disk Manager. Is it OK to update it when my drive is
, say, half full with stuff, or will my doing so botch the system file
(or who knows what else) and I will have to either reinstall a new
system or (better) low-level reformat the whole hard drive (=VERY
inconvenient)? I mean, say I initialized my hard drive 2 months ago and
installed the parking featured - now I want to turn it off: can I go
ahead and use Disk Manager to CHANGE the driver software that was
installed on my hard drive 2 months ago, or is this a no-no???
- A final one for any Macintosh wizards: Ok, I have FACADE installed on
my system folder, and I know how to play with RESEDIT (although I am NOT
an expert) - How can I CHANGE that damn "DM-MAC" icon of my hard disk,
say, personalize it with a Snoopy icon, or the Greek flag or whatever?
Is there any OTHER way of changing my hard drive icon?
ANSWER:
There are no adverse effects to parking your drive that I know
of, but there would be adverse effects of NOT parking your drive. As
far as updating the driver, this is a non-destructive process as long
as that's ALL you tell DM-MAC to do. That's why the option is there.
So you can make option changes like park/no park, or to upgrade to a
newer version of the DM-MAC driver if the need arises.
Your last question is a non-Ontrack product oriented question, and
frankly I have no idea how to change the icon. This board is for
questions about Ontrack products only.
QUESTION:
Thanks for your prompt reply. The thing is that when Hard Drives
International shipped the drive to me, they included Disk Manager
with it BUT they had used another piece of software to initialize the
drive! So I found some weird INITs in my system folder, and the drive
icon was different. Reading the Disk Manager on-disk manual, I assumed
that I could indeed update the driver without reinitializing the whole
drive. Alas, after doing it (and setting the park option on) I could
not boot from my drive anymore because the system file had been
corrupted... I copied a new system file on it and it would boot, but my
initial system folder was huge, with all kinds of fonts and DA's
installed on it, so instead of installing them back on the (newly
copied) system file (and probably fragmenting the system badly) I
elected to low-level reformat the entire drive. Thus my fear that
updating the driver would be a destructive process...
I suppose it makes sense that the system file was corrupted in the
first place because there was NO Disk Manager driver in there in the
first place, since the drive was apparently initialized with another
software, right? In anycase, I confess I am still a little apprehensive
of updating the driver, so would you kindly let me know if you guys have
ACTUALLY tried that with version 2.01 of the Disk Manager and a
Macintosh computer?
Finally, I would like to apologize about giving the impression of using
this Board for questions unrelated to OnTrack. The fact is that Disk
Manager Mac installs its own cute little "DM-MAC" icon on the hard disk,
and I would like to be able to change it if I could. Thus, my thinking
that it was a questions very pertinent to the programming that went into
the Macintosh version of the Disk Manager.
ANSWER:
Mixing two different hard disk installation utilities and their
drivers would indeed open the door for some very strange results. You
may have been OK by just installing the DM-MAC driver and then re-
installing the system folder, but reformatting with DM-MAC from the
ground up was the cleanest option. You are correct in your statment
that low-level formatting is a destructive process. Once you have
stabalized your installation by doing the whole job thru DM-MAC,
simply updating the driver is indeed a non-destructive process. As far
as the icon goes, there is no way from within DM-MAC to change it. If
you click on the text of the icon you can change the text, but you
can't change the icon it's self from within DM-MAC.
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QUESTION:
I JUST PURCHASED A FUTURE DOMAIN TMC-860 SCSI CONTROLLER CARD TO
INTERFACE MY QUANTUM Q280 5 1/4 HALF HEIGHT SCSI (WHICH I EXTRACTED FROM
AN OLD JASMINE DD80 HARD DISK) TO USE WITH MY CHICONY 386SX MOTHERBOARD.
WHENEVER I BOOT UP I GET AN "HDD CONTOLLER FAILURE" MESSAGE FROM THE
THE AMI BIOS. I HAVE TRIED TO DO A "G=C800:5" LOW-LEVEL FORMAT FROM
THE DEBUG UTILITY PROGRAM WITH NO SUCESS. IT JUST HANGS AFTER THE
COMMAND HAS BEEN ENTERED. I HAVE THE FUTURE DOMAIN CONTROLLER JUMPERS
SET FOR A ROM BIOS ADDRESS OF C800:000 TO C800:1FFF AND INTERRUPT 5
ENABLED (WITH NO OTHER INTERRUPT CONFILTS).
PLEASE HELP ME FIND A WAY TO LOW-LEVEL FORMAT MY DRIVE.
ANSWER:
With a SCSI drive, you should have both of your CMOS drive types
set to 0 (no drives installed). You should also make sure that there
are no other HD controllers either in the bus or built into the
motherboard that are enabled. If you have one built into the
motherboard, you must disable it. (This is all assuming that you have
only the SCSI drive in this system.) Disk Manager should then see the
SCSI drive as a STANDARD drive, and all you need to do is to partition
it. SCSI drives are low-level formatted at the factory, and usually
don't need to be re-formatted.
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