Number of Cylinders in a SyQuest 44MB cart

[+MacRorie]

Hello,

 

I am trying to set up a SyQuest 44MB removable cart HD with my MIO and I cannot, for the life of me, determine the number of cylinders on the 44MB cart. I *think* it is 1275 (the number of tracks), with 2 heads. Can anyone confirm this? Also, I am trying to use HDFMTPH6 with this and it *seems* to be working (I am currently waiting for it to finish). I also am uncertain as to the condition go the SQ5200 drive it is in, so it's all kind of a crap shoot, trying to figure it out.

 

While y'all are here, I have a question for you: I have a Ultimate1MiB upgrade installed, with a SiDE2 cart. I have an 850 in storage. Do I really *need* the MIO? Am I missing out on anything if I sell the MIO (or at least move it to storage)?

 

Thanks for your time!

 

UPDATE: It formatted and then went to verify and error-ed out. NO Sense data at Sector #0 Thoughts?

Edited April 26, 2015 by MacRorie

[Mathy]

Hello MacRorie

 

I never had either a SyQuest or a MIO, I call a BlackBox mine. What I learned from Bob Puff, who designed the BlackBox, is that modern drives don't need to be low level (physically?) formatted. It might even cause problems if you do so.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

Edited April 26, 2015 by Mathy

[redman]

Take a look at this.

 

http://maben.homeip.net/static/S100/syquest/disk/Syquest%20SQ555%2044MB%20drive.pdf

[Atari8guy]

These were common on the ST's, you might find more answers/support in that sub form as well.

[1050]

Probably a bad cart. I'm using a 5200 drive system with a black box but it's not up and running at the moment. I use 200 Meg carts which mostly are good and do have a few of the 44 meg carts but have never found a good one of those to even play around with. Mathy is correct in that you don't want to do formatting on the Atari level with these, use a SCSI ISA or PCI card and a PC to do that kind of work if at all. These are properly SCSI 2 devices and they are lousy at following SCSI 1 commands as found in black box software and I assume MIO programs as well.

 

A side benefit of using a PC set up for it will be much faster access. A sector copy done for backup purposes on the Atari for (2) 200 Meg disks will take all day - on the PC 8 minutes. I believe that on non-SCSI 1 devices like this that the black box requires one to set it for one side with double sized tracks in order to work, but that can not be confirmed and is only a vague recollection at best. And no idea at all if the MIO can even be made to do one to begin with either, sorry I never tried that so no real help there. Redman's link shows that 1275 is the proper track count with two heads for a 44 Meg cart, at least technically. How the MIO can handle that setup, I wouldn't know.

 

Also a following for this drive system among Mac users, several of mine have Mac on the case in fact. I used to find them real cheap by searching for Mac, they aren't cheap any more no matter what you call them.

 

No sense data error is likely due to SCSI 1 and SCSI 2 differences in the returned data field, you won't be able to get around it until you re-write the MIO software to comply with SCSI 2 data returned as well as handling SCSI 1 data fields. PC software would be able to handle which ever it got back from the drive, deal with it and move on to the next step in the process. This is the main reason I went with an adaptec aha1520b card and my similar problems just went away when I did that. Only with the PC card, I also found that I had a lot of bad carts that can't be used in any event.

 

I don't have any experience on modern alternatives to either the MIO or black box, sorry again for little help. I can't imagine what you might be missing with modern alternatives though other than specific setup menus which should be even better than what came with black box or MIO I would think.

 

Main issue with bad carts is that part of the drive OS is stored on the cart, if that section is bad you have a bad cart that can not be salvaged. This region is NOT low level formatted ever again once it leaves the factory and even the factory doesn't exist anymore. New 200 Meg disks came with both PC and Mac software on them, a few throw away DOS mode games and the like.

[russg]

Hello,

 

I am trying to set up a SyQuest 44MB removable cart HD with my MIO and I cannot, for the life of me, determine the number of cylinders on the 44MB cart. I *think* it is 1275 (the number of tracks), with 2 heads. Can anyone confirm this? Also, I am trying to use HDFMTPH6 with this and it *seems* to be working (I am currently waiting for it to finish). I also am uncertain as to the condition go the SQ5200 drive it is in, so it's all kind of a crap shoot, trying to figure it out.

 

While y'all are here, I have a question for you: I have a Ultimate1MiB upgrade installed, with a SiDE2 cart. I have an 850 in storage. Do I really *need* the MIO? Am I missing out on anything if I sell the MIO (or at least move it to storage)?

 

Thanks for your time!

 

UPDATE: It formatted and then went to verify and error-ed out. NO Sense data at Sector #0 Thoughts?

The maximum size of a MIO hard drive is 16 megs. This comes from a maximum sector count of 65535 (I think 0 counts). If you want to use more

than 16 megs, you have to partition the device in 16 meg segments. That's my understanding, which isn't very firm. So, you'd have the

first partition sectors 0 to 65535. A second partition would start at 65536 and go to sector 131072. Actually I don't think the MIO

can use numbers above a certain limit. 256 byte sectors.

You're right that the track number is the cylinder number, and you have two heads, I think.

Anyway, you aren't going to access more than 16 megs of your cart in a single partition.

Again, I'm not real sure of what I'm saying. I have a 1 meg MIO, so I do know how I set up my 20 meg MFM hard drives, namely

a 16 meg partition and a 4 meg one. Of course I had to use a Adaptec MFM to SCSI adapter.

Edited April 27, 2015 by russg

[+MacRorie]

Yeah, I had the sectors set correctly. It would try and format 3 logical drives (one physical), but it kept failing on the verify. I took it all apart and packed it up. I think the combo of the Ultimate 1MiB upgrade and the SiDE2 cart is just too awesome to not use on its own. I will pull the 850 out of storage and sell the MIO. I might regret that, but I doubt it.

 

Thanks for all of the help.

[russg]

Yeah, I had the sectors set correctly. It would try and format 3 logical drives (one physical), but it kept failing on the verify. I took it all apart and packed it up. I think the combo of the Ultimate 1MiB upgrade and the SiDE2 cart is just too awesome to not use on its own. I will pull the 850 out of storage and sell the MIO. I might regret that, but I doubt it.

S

The major advantage of the MIO is the RAMdisk. The 256k would certainly do a 90k single density and the 1 meg easily does a couple dbl density. You can

boot from them. No faster boot is available. I ran a BBS and had a STARTUP.BAT that would configure MIO and load from a real floppy if power went out

and then came back on ie. the floppy was D1:. I used SpartaDOS 3.2d. It was a fun thing to see the whole BBS come back up. I didn't have the

Adaptec and MFM hard drives then though, those came later, after the BBS. I think I kept the messages on other floppy drives so the msgs wouldn't

be lost with a power outage. I used four or five real floppy drives.

Edited April 27, 2015 by russg

[+Larry]

It sounds as if you are using the original MIO rom? That means that you must be able to use 256-byte sectors. I don't think the Syquest can do that. My experience was with the ZIP SCSI drives, and they were all locked at 512-byte sectors.

 

Here are some threads for you to look at, since a new rom was created so as to be able to use more modern SCSI devices having 512-byte sectors. This is not trivial, but if you want to use your Syquest, this is likely the only way you are going to do it. *IF* you successfully formatted your Syquest, you may have bricked that cartridge. The new rom should sense the geometry so that all you have to do is to supply the start sector and the length (IIRC). The last released rom (I think) was 1.4.1.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/87015-new-mio-production-run/?p=1730920

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/141914-new-drives-for-mio/?p=2237029

 

So I think what you would need is 1) a new 27128 eprom with the updated rom image, 2) the termination mod? ( not sure if that is necessary, but was for me)

 

Good luck!

-Larry

 

Edit: Here's a screen shot of the MIO Main Configuration Screen. And P.S. -- If you use the SIDE2 (?) cart with the Ultimate, you will miss nothing, except quite a bit of work and maybe a nostalgia factor...

[+MacRorie]

All right! I will give it a try. No harm, no foul, right?

[russg]

It sounds as if you are using the original MIO rom? That means that you must be able to use 256-byte sectors. I don't think the Syquest can do that. My experience was with the ZIP SCSI drives, and they were all locked at 512-byte sectors.

 

Here are some threads for you to look at, since a new rom was created so as to be able to use more modern SCSI devices having 512-byte sectors. This is not trivial, but if you want to use your Syquest, this is likely the only way you are going to do it. *IF* you successfully formatted your Syquest, you may have bricked that cartridge. The new rom should sense the geometry so that all you have to do is to supply the start sector and the length (IIRC). The last released rom (I think) was 1.4.1.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/87015-new-mio-production-run/?p=1730920

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/141914-new-drives-for-mio/?p=2237029

 

So I think what you would need is 1) a new 27128 eprom with the updated rom image, 2) the termination mod? ( not sure if that is necessary, but was for me)

 

Good luck!

-Larry

 

Edit: Here's a screen shot of the MIO Main Configuration Screen. And P.S. -- If you use the SIDE2 (?) cart with the Ultimate, you will miss nothing, except quite a bit of work and maybe a nostalgia factor...

I remember a little more. There is a utility that lets you save a MIO configuration and then be able to restore it. MIOGET and MIOSAVE.COM. Here's the

ACTION! source for MIOGET and the two .COM files and MIO.DOC. I think MIOGET 'gets' the MIO.CNF file and restores it and MIOSAVE makes the MIO.CNF file.

MIOGET.zip

Edited April 29, 2015 by russg

[+MacRorie]

Excellent! I ordered an EPROM to upgrade the MIO, so I will see what happens. Thanks for the file!

[russg]

Excellent! I ordered an EPROM to upgrade the MIO, so I will see what happens. Thanks for the file!

The Syquest sq555 you have has 256 byte sectors. You don't need a new MIO ROM.

Or do you?

[+MacRorie]

The Syquest sq555 you have has 256 byte sectors. You don't need a new MIO ROM.

Or do you?

No, I did not think so, but if the SyQuest can take 256 byte sectors (which I thought it could), then why is the MIO erring out? Do I just put in a pre-formatted (say IBM) and do a HDFMTDIR on it?

[Mathy]

Hello MacRorie

 

Forget about HDFMTDIR. It will probably cause more problems than it will solve.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[+MacRorie]

Oksy, I get that. So . . . what do I do now?

[russg]

No, I did not think so, but if the SyQuest can take 256 byte sectors (which I thought it could), then why is the MIO erring out? Do I just put in a pre-formatted (say IBM) and do a HDFMTDIR on it?

MacRorie. It has been a long time since I used my MIO. I did, back in the day, make a document that I hoped would be informative. Here is what I wrote:

 

û0,70

Some Notes on using Hard Drive(s) with MIO

Russ Gilbert

 

These notes cannot/do not replace the MIO owner's manual. It is

intended to give some helpful hints that the owner manual may leave a

bit unclear.

 

The MIO can only use hard drives with 256 byte sectors. These would be

only the older MFM, RLL and SCSI hard drives, probably less than 100

megs in size.

 

For MFM and RLL hard drives, a SCSI to MFM or SCSI to RLL

adapter/controller must be used. The most common is the Adaptec 4000A,

aka ACB-4000A controller, used with a Seagate ST225 20 meg hard drive.

Any 256 byte/sector mfm hard drive can be used with the MIO and 4000A,

however. The RLL Adaptec controller is the ACB-4070. I don't think

using RLL drives with the 4000A or a MFM with a 4070 is a good idea.

256 byte/sector SCSI hard drives exist, such as the Seagate ST225N.

SCSI hard drives have the controller built into them, so no 'in

between' controller is needed.

 

SCSI uses a convention of ID number and Logical Unit Number (LUN). It

seems the ID number is always 0 for a setup with a single controller.

ie. the ID number identifies the controller number. I suppose you can

somehow daisy chain controllers. You'd have to daisy chain controllers

if you used two SCSI drives, which would have two separate controllers

(remember the SCSI has built in controllers).

 

The LUN is the physical drive number. You must set a jumper on the

drive itself to indicate which drive it is. 0, 1, 2, 3 etc.

 

So, drive 1 on the controller is ID 0, LUN 0. Drive 2, attached to the

same controller would be ID 0, LUN 1.

 

The MIO also can use SASI drives. I have no idea what these are.

 

Ok, now to my notes on specifics of setting up.

 

I. THE CABLES. POWER SUPPLY AND JUMPER SETTINGS:

 

Keep your cables short. No more than about one foot in length is

probably best. Any pc power supply can be used that has the 'standard'

four hole 'D' shaped power plugs. Newer power supplies may not have

the correct plug, or an adapter may be needed. The power requirements

of the controller and HDs should be carefully determined, and matching

power given to them.

 

There must always be a drive 0. If more than one drive is to be used,

the termination resistor, somewhere on the hard drive itself, must be

removed. Only the last drive MUST have this termination resistor and

no other drives can have it, as I understand. There are no termination

resistors on the cables themselves (the MIO documentation seems to

indicate there should be.) Sometimes the termination resistor isn't

where you can get at it, it is inside the drive someplace. Possibly a

drive like this would have to be the last drive.

 

Set the jumper which selects the drive number. The first one for drive

one. These jumpers can often be identified by searching for drive

information from the drive manufacturer on the www (eg.

www.seagate.com).

 

A fifty pin ribbon cable connects to the MIO. The red 'line' on the

cable is wire #1 and goes to pin 1. Pin one is at the top back of the

MIO. It is possible to put this ribbon on backwards. With the pin type

headers, great care and patience should be taken to line up the holes

and pins and gently push the cable connector on the pins. Removing the

connector should be done slowly, probably prying with a small screw

driver, first one side then the other. It is VERY easy to bend and

break the head pins, great care must be taken installing and removing

the cables.

 

For MFM and RLL drives, there is a 34 pin and a 20 pin ribbon cable to

the drives, coming from the adapter. The 34 pin can be daisy chained.

Each drive gets a separate 20 pin ribbon. The J0 on the 4000A is for

drive 1 and J1 is for drive 2. Be sure the 20 pin connections and the

jumper settings on the HD match. And be certain of the pin 1s on your

connections. More than one connection can be done backwards. The slot

connectors with a notch are nice because you can't put them on

backwards.

 

II. WITH CONNECTIONS MADE, YOU ARE READY TO POWER UP:

 

The sequence is first hds, then MIO and finally computer.

The hard drive lights should blink a few times and the controller

light should blink a few times, then all hd and controller lights

should go out (if they don't, something is wrong with your setup or

hardware). With lights out on the hd and controller, turn on the MIO.

 

Finally turn on the computer. Hold SELECT and hit RESET to enter the

MIO menu. Select 'T' for drive type, and hit 'N' to select the number

of the drive you want the hd partition to be. The MIO menu determines

a hd partition. A partition cannot be larger than 16 megs. You can

partition a single hd to be more than one 'Drive #' in order to use

more of the hard drive over 16 megs.

 

I'm only going to describe a single hard drive setup. If you

understand this, you can add another one.

 

Say the hard drive is a 20 meg. You want a 16 meg partition and a 4

meg partition. You select, say, drive # 3 to be a Hard drive. I forget

when you hit SPACE and when you hit ENTER, but you go thru the

interface, ID, LUN, Cylinders (Drive size is automatically computed),

Heads, Start Sector and End+1 sector. For a 16 meg partition, the

start sector should be 1 and the End+1 sector 65536. The number of

cylinders and heads you have to know from the hard drive

manufacturer. Often, this is printed on the hd. For a second

partition on the same physical hd, you would start with sector 65536

and end with the about 81180 (for 20 meg drive).

 

Ok, you can't save the configuration yet, the hd hasn't been low level

formatted. For this use the hdfmtph6.com on the MIO disk you got. I

had best, actually only, success with hdfmtph6. Other hds may do

better with one of the other hdfmtphX, but hdfmtph6 worked best for

me. You will be asked the ID, LUN you want to format. 0, 0 for the

first partition. Then you'll be asked what type of controller you

have. Finally you'll be asked 'buffered' or 'unbuffered'. You might

get a hint from hard drive tech specs on this, but 'Buffered' worked

best for me for a ST225 and Olivetti XM 5220/2.

 

The behavior of hdfmtph6 isn't very friendly, it doesn't let you know

if it is hung or what is going on. Normally you begin the low level

format and the hd light comes on for some time. Then the screen shows

verifying blocks and the # of blocks to verify. If an error occurs,

the whole process starts over. If lots and lots of errors occur, there

is probably something wrong with your setup. Also, if the initial

stage, before the verify, takes longer than, say, five minutes,

something is wrong. I waited an hour once, I think. Everything could

burn up, or something, the program just keeps going, saying nothing.

 

A successful completion of hdfmtph6 will tell you success and tell you

also the number of sectors on the hd. Write this down, as it is the

last sector you can use for partitioning in the MIO menu.

 

Finally, you go into the MIO menu, save the configuration and then run

hdfmtdir.com to put the Atari Directory structure on the hd.

All above is with SpartaDOS. MyDOS may have some differences, and,

actually I suggest using MyDOS with the Black Box and SpartaDOS with

the MIO.

 

Copy DOS (say x32d.dos) to the hd, type 'boot x32d.dos' and now you

can boot from the hd. The MIO configuration will load from the hd

when you do a power up sequence. Other than the first time, you can

leave the MIO on all the time. Just be sure the hd is up to speed and

finished initializing before turning on the computer.

 

Russ Gilbert

April 19, 1998

 

 

[1050]

I rolled up a care package for your perusal MacRorie. It consists of some saved 14 year old captured web pages from the SyQuest site which offers much less these days. Also included are the drivers for a SCSI card of your choice to do this type of formatting on your PC just like I can do on mine. With marginally better support files for the black box than what the MIO has, I still got NOWHERE trying to format my cart with 256 byte sectors there, my only success was doing it on the PC with SCSI 2 capable software included in the care package below. Once it was formatted properly, the black box took to it like a duck takes to water. How the MIO will like it remains to be seen. And I've always wanted to know about this part.

You can send your cart to me and I can do it for you if you want. I also have plenty of 200 meg carts that I can do this on for you as well. In the latter days of cheap availability I purchased 40 or so for $2 a pop, new and still in shrink wrap. You are welcome to several. PM me for address exchange info if you want to pursue any of these offers.

With this care package, all you need then is a SCSI card, any of several mentioned in the pages and read me files of the software included as well. Be sure to unzip this care package with folder names, as the saved html files are dependent upon their individually saved image files saved under that exactly named folder hierarchy. You should be able to move the entire group of folders anywhere and the html pages will still launch and render properly. s_352 executables found within will be self extracting software packages with DOS mode drivers for your SCSI card to work with. I use WinZip 8.0 to open them and view the contents with out having them explode in the store folder making a mess of things like this type of software distribution package can do at times. The smaller s_352 executable is from a much earlier date and probably not needed at all, the larger one does have some limited use windows software in it which might explain the bloat factor. It also contains higher versions of the DOS mode software offered in the smaller s_352 package.

 

SQ5200C.zip

 

Anybody want to post or PM me any MIO.CNG sample files for examination?. I'm looking for ANY mio system, knowing how each is differently configured is exactly what I need to see. So being a syquest drive system isn't a necessity, there will still be decent information within. TIA.

 

 

[BillC]

The MIO can only use hard drives with 256 byte sectors. These would be

only the older MFM, RLL and SCSI hard drives, probably less than 100

megs in size.

There are some models of Seagate SCSI drives that can be changed to 256 byte sectors, below is from the manual for the 10,000RPM 18GB Cheetah, ST118202LW/LC.

Notes.

[1]

Sector size selectable at format time. Users having the necessary equipment may modify the data block

size before issuing a format command and obtain different formatted capacities than those listed. See

Mode Select Command and Format Command in the SCSI Interface Product Manual , part number

77738479.

 

The SeaTools Windows Enterprise Edition software is supposed to be capable of making this change.

[1050]

In my book, ANY SCSI advice can be taken as helpful when things aren't working. I've been there, it's not a nice place to be.

 

These are the go to guys for all things scsi. I see they have Bart's scsitool right up front and center. It will also do low level formats where the sector size can be changed.

http://www.scsifaq.org/

 

What I'm going by is the SQ555 manual as linked to above by redman in which I see this:

 

 

It would appear that even the lesser talented SQ 555 drive can do 256, 512, and 1024 byte sectors. With a corresponding loss of sectors per track as would be expected. IIRC even 2048 byte sectors are not outside the possibilities on some SCSI drives. IIRC again 1024 byte sectors are matching what CDs have and use. Just how that's useful I never cared to find out. I can't even remember which software I used to do the low level format with 256 bytes per sector change here it's been so long ago, it might have even been an option in the card's BIOS. It was over so fast, I don't remember doing it. I do know it worked for the black box afterwards and it wouldn't before that.

[russg]

I rolled up a care package for your perusal MacRorie. It consists of some saved 14 year old captured web pages from the SyQuest site which offers much less these days. Also included are the drivers for a SCSI card of your choice to do this type of formatting on your PC just like I can do on mine. With marginally better support files for the black box than what the MIO has, I still got NOWHERE trying to format my cart with 256 byte sectors there, my only success was doing it on the PC with SCSI 2 capable software included in the care package below. Once it was formatted properly, the black box took to it like a duck takes to water. How the MIO will like it remains to be seen. And I've always wanted to know about this part.

 

You can send your cart to me and I can do it for you if you want. I also have plenty of 200 meg carts that I can do this on for you as well. In the latter days of cheap availability I purchased 40 or so for $2 a pop, new and still in shrink wrap. You are welcome to several. PM me for address exchange info if you want to pursue any of these offers.

 

With this care package, all you need then is a SCSI card, any of several mentioned in the pages and read me files of the software included as well. Be sure to unzip this care package with folder names, as the saved html files are dependent upon their individually saved image files saved under that exactly named folder hierarchy. You should be able to move the entire group of folders anywhere and the html pages will still launch and render properly. s_352 executables found within will be self extracting software packages with DOS mode drivers for your SCSI card to work with. I use WinZip 8.0 to open them and view the contents with out having them explode in the store folder making a mess of things like this type of software distribution package can do at times. The smaller s_352 executable is from a much earlier date and probably not needed at all, the larger one does have some limited use windows software in it which might explain the bloat factor. It also contains higher versions of the DOS mode software offered in the smaller s_352 package.

 

SQ5200C.zip

 

Anybody want to post or PM me any MIO.CNG sample files for examination?. I'm looking for ANY mio system, knowing how each is differently configured is exactly what I need to see. So being a syquest drive system isn't a necessity, there will still be decent information within. TIA.

 

 

here's my BBS atr with a MIO.CNF in it. I don't remember what the .cnf did. It is a proprietary BBS. I suspect it is before I had real hard drives.

MYBBSXA.zip

Edited May 3, 2015 by russg

[1050]

Thanks Russ, that was fun. Here is the 112 bytes of the file MIO.CNG

 

 

I see no hard drives, drives 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are not being used and you are booting from a 256K Ramdisk. But I could of got that much from up above too. Still nice to see it here.

[+MacRorie]

Thanks for all the help, folks!

 

I will resurrect my DOS/XP box and see what I can do from there. I use Parallels if I need to use Windows nowadays, but going down memory lane on the 8bit means getting all my knowledge back.

 

Thanks for the homework materials and I will keep you informed.

[+warerat]

There is a lot of generalization, speculation, and misinformation here on how the MIO operates.

 

- (1050) No sense data error is likely due to SCSI 1 and SCSI 2 differences in the returned data field, you won't be able to get around it until you re-write the MIO software to comply with SCSI 2 data returned as well as handling SCSI 1 data fields.

 

Huh? After the data phase is complete, the message phase starts that has data indicating the status of the operation. If the error bit is set, then you send a Get Sense CDB to get a more specific sense key/code describing the error. There is no "complying with SCSI-2 data returned". Instead, what the MIO lacks is the proper SCSI-2 Arbitration/Selection phases that some devices at strict SCSI-2 spec require. How do I know this? I rewrote the SCSI routines in the MIO software to improve compatibility with newer devices and not rely on a fixed 256-byte data phase. These two limitations are usually the cause of SCSI devices not working properly.

 

 

- (1050) IIRC even 2048 byte sectors are not outside the possibilities on some SCSI drives. IIRC again 1024 byte sectors are matching what CDs have and use.

 

Data CD-ROMs use 2048-bytes (excluding the ECC). The updated MIO ROM can handle these large sector sizes, assuming the DOS can.

 

 

The parameters for cylinders and heads are irrelevant in this context and won't make any difference. Those are sent to the device only if you use the original 1.1 firmware and the device is set to SASI. The CDB for the SASI drive config command is long obsolete and not recognized by modern SCSI controllers that aren't attached to an ancient MFM/RLL SCSI/SASI bridge. What is still relevant is the starting and ending sectors. The original MIO firmware uses the older 6-byte CDB to read/write sectors to the disk, allowing only for 21-bit sector addressing. The re-written one uses the newer 10-byte CDBs that allow 32-bit LBA and can also send a Read Device Capacity CDB to find the number of blocks (size) and the default block size.

 

 

MacRorie:

If you want a basic confidence test, all that is required is simply write the config to the disk. This is stored in LBA sector 0, so just set a configuration and write it and upon reset if the drive is able to restore it correctly then you will know if you have a chance of the device working. If it errors while writing the config and you're using the original ROM then its either:

 

- The device is expecting parity and the MIO isn't modified to supply it (this can be fixed in hardware)

- The device doesn't honor the SCSI-1 single initiator sequence the MIO provides (quasi-fixed in software)

- The device data phase is > 256-bytes (fixed in software)

- There is a problem with the media

 

Last but not least, using the old ICD formatters that are coded for long obsolete drive types is not recommended or a guarantee for success.

[+MacRorie]

MacRorie:

If you want a basic confidence test, all that is required is simply write the config to the disk. This is stored in LBA sector 0, so just set a configuration and write it and upon reset if the drive is able to restore it correctly then you will know if you have a chance of the device working. If it errors while writing the config and you're using the original ROM then its either:

 

- The device is expecting parity and the MIO isn't modified to supply it (this can be fixed in hardware)

- The device doesn't honor the SCSI-1 single initiator sequence the MIO provides (quasi-fixed in software)

- The device data phase is > 256-bytes (fixed in software)

- There is a problem with the media

 

Last but not least, using the old ICD formatters that are coded for long obsolete drive types is not recommended or a guarantee for success.

 

Well, that has not worked from the start. As I have been using different media [some confirmed good] (fixed and removable) then I am fairly certain, I can rule the media out.

 

When you say software, do you mean formatters or firmware? If you mean formatters, which ones do you suggest (besides the old ICD HDFMTPHX?)

 

BTW, I must say THANK YOU to every one on the forum and the thread, this has been very helpful.

 

I have the eprom for upgrading the MIO prom. I need to be away from my set up for a bit, but I will log in every so often to read messages. The first thing I will do upon return is burn the eprom and see if that solves/changes things. I will also try out any different physical formatters.

 

Thanks

-Mac