Talk:ND-110 Satellite 9883.21238: Difference between revisions

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(Note about changing block size of a disk.)
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::: I found an Adaptec AHA-2940UW card, so I'll try that. [[User:TArntsen|TArntsen]] ([[User talk:TArntsen|talk]]) 13:58, 31 August 2016 (UTC)
::: I found an Adaptec AHA-2940UW card, so I'll try that. [[User:TArntsen|TArntsen]] ([[User talk:TArntsen|talk]]) 13:58, 31 August 2016 (UTC)
Quick update (more later): The drive uses 1024-byte sectors. And it has an ND-specific name. But I believe the 1024-byte sectors are enough to explain the weird image created when you tried to install SINTRAN on a 512byte-sectored disk. Because that's what it looked like. The type etc. probably only matters when formatting. So, try finding a 1024-byte sectored disk, plug it in, install SINTRAN M again, and see how it goes. --[[User:TArntsen|TArntsen]] ([[User talk:TArntsen|talk]]) 20:38, 3 September 2016 (UTC)
Quick update (more later): The drive uses 1024-byte sectors. And it has an ND-specific name. But I believe the 1024-byte sectors are enough to explain the weird image created when you tried to install SINTRAN on a 512byte-sectored disk. Because that's what it looked like. The type etc. probably only matters when formatting. So, try finding a 1024-byte sectored disk, plug it in, install SINTRAN M again, and see how it goes. --[[User:TArntsen|TArntsen]] ([[User talk:TArntsen|talk]]) 20:38, 3 September 2016 (UTC)
:sg3_utils with [http://linux.die.net/man/8/sg_format sg_format] in linux can reformat a drive to change block size, see [https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/how-to-reformat-hdd-ssd-to-512b-sector-size.4968/ this forum post].--[[User:Gandalf|Gandalf]] ([[User talk:Gandalf|talk]]) 08:01, 4 September 2016 (UTC)

Revision as of 08:01, 4 September 2016

Hard drive - figure out SCSI parameters

I see you have hardware now - congrats! One thing about the SCSI hard drive (in addition to make an image of it) - it would be nice if you could figure out what SCSI parameters or changes to firmware (if any) ND have changed on the drive in order to make it work with ND machines. Some things you can probably figure out with the drive connected to a Linux or other unix box. Examples:

  • does the drive report 1024 byte blocks instead of the more common 512 byte blocks?
  • Has the name or firmware version changed (compared to a non-ND drive of the same model)?
  • Does any of the SCSI / drive parameter pages contain unusual values?

Apologies if you have thought about this already. --Torfinn (talk) 08:43, 31 August 2016 (UTC)

I'll try to check for all of that if and when I can get the drive connected to something.. right now I don't have a SCSI interface on any of my Linux boxes (single ended or otherwise). My SCSI SGI O2+ got a hardware failure recently, so that one is also not an option. I should have access to an Octane with differential SCSI, but will need some interfacing work. TArntsen (talk) 09:50, 31 August 2016 (UTC)
If you need or want a PCI SCSI card, I have several of the common Adaptec cards, they work fine with FreeBSD and should work in Linux as well. I could send you one, if you want to. --Torfinn (talk) 10:11, 31 August 2016 (UTC)
Thanks, I may have to take you up on that (the last PC card (Adaptec 1542 ISA) I had broke some time ago). I'll come back to you if I can't get the SGI solution to work.TArntsen (talk)
If I knew you needed a SCSI card I would have thrown in a PCI one. The system I have was easily imaged by just plugging it to a linux computer and using dd, I don't believe there is any exotic settings for the disk format but I might be wrong. This is purely speculation but I believe that the problem with getting a generic disk working with SINTRAN is probably because the disk formatter is reading the model number and without a known model don't know how big system it is going to create. A dump of the formatting program contains strings with the name of the disks it supports. --Gandalf (talk) 12:58, 31 August 2016 (UTC)
I found an Adaptec AHA-2940UW card, so I'll try that. TArntsen (talk) 13:58, 31 August 2016 (UTC)

Quick update (more later): The drive uses 1024-byte sectors. And it has an ND-specific name. But I believe the 1024-byte sectors are enough to explain the weird image created when you tried to install SINTRAN on a 512byte-sectored disk. Because that's what it looked like. The type etc. probably only matters when formatting. So, try finding a 1024-byte sectored disk, plug it in, install SINTRAN M again, and see how it goes. --TArntsen (talk) 20:38, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

sg3_utils with sg_format in linux can reformat a drive to change block size, see this forum post.--Gandalf (talk) 08:01, 4 September 2016 (UTC)