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. 
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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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