Date : Sun, 26 Nov 2006 22:19:37 -0000
From : profpep@... (Mike)
Subject: Formatting a scsi harddisk for ADFS
> My harddrive is a Seagate ST32171W, which has a "Selectable even byte
> sector sizes from 180 to 4,096 bytes/sector" So, it should be
> possible to reformat it with 256 byte blocks. But SuperForm does not
> send this specific request to the drive. It simply issues a Format
> Unit command, which leaves the blocksize at 512 bytes.
> I know that I would not be able to use the entire harddisk, 512 Mb or
> even 256Mb would be more than sufficient.
>
> I have looked through a few hundred messages in my list archive, but
> could not find any answer to my two questions:
>
> - Does anybody has a formatting program that will send the required
> commands to any harddisk to select the 256 byte blocksize?
>
> - Does anybody have, or is able to patch an ADFS rom which can use a
> harddrive with 512 bytes blocksize?
>
> I know it should be possible to add the right commands to a program
> like SuperForm so it will set the right Mode Page before issueing a
> Format Unit command. Sadly I am not able to write anything like that.
Seagate have a PC utility called 'Seatools enterprise' in the advanced
section you'll find an option to change the block length to whatever you
want. For ADFS you need 256 bytes. Easiest way is to hook the drive to a PC
with a suitable HBA, you may need to install ASPII from adaptec if windows
doesn't. You can theh use Seatools to do the job.
Otherwise I'll have to trawl through some of my old discs to see if I can
find the hack I did to get it to work. It's based around the SCSI 'Mode
Select' (16h) command and is in the 'block length' part - don't confuse this
with the parameter block length. Seagate document 89509a.PDF gives the full
description of SCSI as applies to Seagate drives. It's not exactly light
reading. I modded a version of the command in Superform to use a different
command number, and set up a parameter block as required. Once I'd done the
mode select, the program did the SCSI Format, then it was the turn of the
ADFS. IIRC, ADFS will handle up to 4 Gigabytes. Another mode selesct command
can be used to set the 'formatted size' of some drives. OEM drives such as
those Seagate made for Sun, won't always respond to the full command set.
Hope this helps
||\/||ike