Very Computer

by **Scott Be** » Thu, 02 May 1996 04:00:00

Hi all! Me again. :) I'm trying to use an HP C3010 2GB drive for Linux. I am having some
problems. Here goes:

First, I don't have a floppy (anymore) but I do have Linux on a smaller HD. I assume I can
just use setup to install to my HD mounted on /mnt ... am I wrong? (Then I would add it to LILO and
it should be able to boot...?)

Next, the version of fdisk I have does not appear to support >2GB. The version of cfdisk
says that it does and lets me change the cylinders to reflect that, but there are even some problems
with that. Here is a run-down of the drive configs:

HP C3010
Cylinders/Drive: 2255
Sectors/Track: Zone 0 = 96
Zone 1 = 88
Zone 2 = 76
Sectors/Cyl: Zone 1 = 1824
Zone 2 = 1672
Zone 3 = 1444
Sectors/Drive: 3,912,172
Bytes/Drive: 2,003,032,064

Both fdisk and cfdisk report: 64 heads (bogus), 32 sectors (bogus) and 979 cyls (bogus).
Both will let me change the #cyls to 1910 (a rough approx since this drive has a variable
number of sects/cyl and sects/track), however fdisk *es when I assign a cyl above 1023 and
though cfdisk doesn't, it fails when writing the pmap and then fails everytime I launch it after
that!
I tried to use the fdisk.c that was in the source directory of my slakware dist (CDROM),
but it bailed on compile telling me that it couldn't resolve symbols!

I'd REALLY hate to lose a GIG! Is there any good way around this problem?

PS: I'm using an AHA 1522A and I set the jumper for >1GB translation.

Thanks!
Scott

by **Scott Morris** » Sun, 05 May 1996 04:00:00

Quote:> Both fdisk and cfdisk report: 64 heads (bogus), 32 sectors (bogus) and 979 cyls
> (bogus).
> Both will let me change the #cyls to 1910 (a rough approx since this drive has
>a variable
>number of sects/cyl and sects/track), however fdisk *es when I assign a cyl
>above 1023 and
>though cfdisk doesn't, it fails when writing the pmap and then fails everytime I
> launch it after
>that!

Well, first things first. You're using SCSI, so you're never going to need to know the physical
geometry of your drive. Most, if not ALL PC SCSI host adapters simply translate the geometry
into 1 meg/cylinder (64h/32s per cyl) for <1G, or 8M/cyl (255h/64s per cyl) for >1G.

Quote:> I'd REALLY hate to lose a GIG! Is there any good way around this problem?

>PS: I'm using an AHA 1522A and I set the jumper for >1GB translation.

Most Adaptec host BIOSes have a failsafe sanity check when they fire up the drive translation.
Even if configured for >1G drives, they'll simply (and sometimes quietly) revert to 64h/32s
translation if the partition table looks like it's using 64h/32s translation. The way around
that, of course is simple enough. Either just low-level the drive; or using fdisk or DOS fdisk,
or Norton, or whatever strikes your fancy, delete all the partitions, and reboot.

See if that helps...

_scott_

Very Computer

SCSI HD > 2GB problem

SCSI HD > 2GB problem

SCSI HD > 2GB problem