299 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
299 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
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THE SCSI HACKER V1.1
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A Format/Uitility Program for Apple's SCSI Card
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And ANY Hard Drive
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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THE SCSI HACKER IS A "NO FRILLS" PROGRAM DESIGNED FOR THOSE WHO
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UNDERSTAND HARD DISK LOW-LEVEL FORMATTING (AND ITS IMPLICATIONS). THE
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PROGRAM HAS LIMITED WARNING MESSAGES AND NO HELP MENUS. IT IS CAPABLE
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OF TOTALLY DESTROYING ALL DATA ON ANY HARD DISK CONNECTED TO AN APPLE
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SCSI CARD, WITHOUT ANY CHANCE OF RECOVERY VIA "UNDELETE" TYPE
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PROGRAMS, ETC. THEREFORE, IF YOU DO NOT WHAT YOUR DOING, DO NOT USE
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THIS PROGRAM!
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(C) 1988 Joe Jaworski
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18405 Tamarind Street
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Fountain Valley, CA 92708
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GEnie: JVJAWORSKI
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CompuServe: [73307,310]
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THE SCSI HACKER is FREEWARE. It is copyright material but you may use
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it and/or distribute it free of charge to anyone for personal,
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non-commercial use.
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Revision History:
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Version 1.0 First Release 12/19/88
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Version 1.1 Fix Error reporting bug 3/19/89
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To get the most out of SCSI HACKER, you will need the following:
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1) Apple SCSI Card (Rev C. EPROMs)
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2) A SCSI Integrated Hard Drive or ST506/SCSI Controller
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3) HDSCPartition program (included on the SCSI.TOOLS diskette)
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4) ADV.DISK.UTIL (from the GS System Tools diskette)
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5) DiskTimerGS (FREEWARE program, available on most BBSs)
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INTRODUCTION
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THE SCSI HACKER allows you to low-level format any hard disk drive in
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your choice of interleaves. This will allow you to optimize your hard
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drive for the fastest possible speed. It also provides an extended
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("overnight") test program that will verify proper operation of a disk
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after formatting. In addition, you can selectively park the heads on
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any drive connected to the SCSI Bus.
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Needless to say, you should have adequate backup before experimenting
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with this program.
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MAIN MENU
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After launching, THE SCSI HACKER provides the following options in its
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Main Menu. If you get an error message, either a SCSI Card was not
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found in any of your slots or there are no devices currently active on
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the SCSI Bus. If you get an SMP/ProDOS Error and an error number, see
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note 6 in the section on troubleshooting at the end of this file.
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NOTE: The Apple SCSI Card only issues a SCSI HARD RESET on power-up.
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Among other things, this forces you to power-up your drive before your
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system (unless the drive your using can respond to UNIT READYs before
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the motor is up to speed). If things aren't working properly,
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power-down for 10 seconds and power back up again- Drive first, then
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Computer second.
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Test Unit: This option performs a READ test of every block on a
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formatted partition. It uses what is a called a "butterfly" test, in
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which blocks are tested from the lowest to the highest and then are
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incrementally changed, which excersizes the stepper motor and most of
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the electronics on the hard drive. This test is non-destructive (only
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does READs) to the data on the drive. If you receive an error, HACKER
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will report the logical block number that is bad. Run Mr.Fixit or any
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other bad-block lockout program to prevent ProDOS from using the
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block. Depending upon how defects are mapped on your drive, bad blocks
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may be normal.
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Select Unit: This option allows you to select any unit currently
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active on the SCSI bus. The currently selected volume (if any) is
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listed at the bottom of the screen. Also included is the current slot.
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If you have two SCSI cards installed in your system, only the one in
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the upper-most physical slot can be used with SCSI HACKER.
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Low-Level Format: This option allows you to perform a low-level format
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of any drive. You will also have the opportunity to select an
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interleave value for the low-level format. This test is destructive,
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destroying all data, all partitions, and all directories on the drive
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selected.
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For the last time, don't play games with your data. Do a full back-up
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before using this program.
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Park Heads: This test will allow you to park the heads of any and/or
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all devices currently active on the SCSI Bus.
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Quit: This exits you from THE SCSI HACKER, getting you back to more
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friendly territory.
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OPTIMIZING YOUR HARD DRIVE
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A Proper Interleave setting of your hard disk can make a tremendous
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difference in performance. Most manufacturers who sell hard drives
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(especially those who do in different markets) optimize the interleave
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factor for either the IBM-XT or the Mac. These systems are faster that
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IIGS's and use interleave factors that are completely different. The
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object here is to maximize the interleave for the IIGS and GS/OS. Once
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done properly, you will truly notice a speed-up in Disk I/O when using
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your everyday applications.
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A few notes that will save you headaches:
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1) Low-level Format your drive at room temperature. I've worked on
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these things long enough to know that most drives suffer from
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temperature differential problems, aggrevated at the high end. Leave
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your system powered-on for a half-hour before starting.
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2) Make sure the drive is terminated. Look near the connector on the
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Drive's printed circuit board for resistor termination packs. Make
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sure they're firmly in their sockets. Also set the SCSI ID to 6 (for
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single drive setups) and if you have a choice of LUN settings (see
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your drive/subsystem manual), set the drive for LUN 0.
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FINDING THE BEST INTERLEAVE
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The first step is to find the best interleave for your setup. This is
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a trial and error period that will take some time, but once done,
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you'll never have to do it again.
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Step by Step Procedure:
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1) Low-level format the drive using the low-level format option in the
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Main Menu. As a starting point, set the interleave value to 5.
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2) After formatting is completed, Run the HDSCPartition program that
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came on the SCSI.TOOLS diskette included with your Apple SCSI Card.
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NOTE: If you have upgraded your SCSI card to a Rev C ROM via your
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dealer, make sure you also get a copy of the diskette called "SCSI
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Card Utilities". If your dealer is stupid (not uncommon), ask him if
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you can make a copy of the diskette included in the box with the new
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SCSI cards.
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With HDSCPartition, It doesn't matter what partition sizes you set at
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this point, as long as you set one that is at least 10 megabytes in
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size.
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NOTE: If you're launching these programs from the FINDER, be sure to
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answer EJECT from the Finder's request to initialize the volume. DO
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NOT use the Advanced Disk Utility (ADU) at this point. The two
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programs do two different things. HDSCPartition creates a DPM (Device
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Partition Map), while ADU will only allow you to modify the DPM. If
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ADU doesn't find a DPM, it will low-level format your drive at 1:1
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interleave, something you do not want. Hence, don't use ADU at this
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time.
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3) After running HDSC partition and then quitting, answer "Initialize"
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to the Finder's prompts this time, instead of EJECT. This will
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high-level format your drive, allowing you to name the volume(s). If
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you're not using the FINDER, run Copy II Plus or the FILER or any
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other program that does high-level formatting. Name the disk(s)
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anything you want. At this point, don't worry about capacity, even if
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your 64 Magabyte drive only shows up as 20 Megabytes. We'll be fixing
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that shortly.
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The High-Level Format should take only a few seconds. If it takes
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longer, (indicating that a low-level format has been forced), you
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messed up somewhere, so go back and start over.
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4) Put a Copy of DiskTimerGS on the new volume and launch it from
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there. Write down the test results.
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5) Now try an interleave factor of 10 ($0A), going through each step
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again. Now do it again with 15($0F).
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What we're doing at this point is finding the best interleave factor.
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For example, suppose you get the following results from DiskTimerGS:
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InterLeave: 5($05) 10($0A) 15($0F) 20($14)
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READ Timing: 90 61 69 78
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In this example, the READ numbers from DiskTimerGS got dramatically
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better when going from an interleave of 5 to 10. This means that the
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optimum interleave factor is somewhere between 5 and 10. (Don't
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concern yourself with the SEEK or ADAPTER numbers from DiskTimerGS).
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Also, you might want to run DiskTimerGS twice each time to make sure
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your numbers are stable.
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Now go back and do the interleave one at time, from 5 through 10. Your
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results might look like this:
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InterLeave: 5($05) 6($06) 7($07) 8($08) 9($09)
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READ Timing: 90 95 96 58 59
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Bingo! An interleave of 8 is best. This is where the READ timing drops
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off dramatically. However, as a rule of thumb always add 1 or 2 to get
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best overall performance when using real applications. Therefore, the
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best interleave for your drive is 9 or 10.
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Now do the following:
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1) Reformat at an interleave of 10 (if needed).
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2) Run HDSCPartition as described above.
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3) Run ADU.
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4) Select your drive and set up your partitions exactly the way you
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want them. You should now get your full capacity. The partitions will
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be named "Apple //" from HDSCPartition. Name them to whatever you want
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to use as the volume names, adjusting partition size accordingly.
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5) You're Done! Your hard drive will now work at peak performance.
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USING TEST
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It's a good idea to run the TEST option at least two passes on each
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partition before using your drive. TEST will run continuously until
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stopped by the ESC key, so if you want, you can run it overnight or
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all day while you're at work. Be patient. Even two passes can take
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over an hour, depending upon the capacity of your drive. You'll have
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to high-level format the drive before running test.
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PROBLEMS, TROUBLESHOOTING, CAVEATS
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1) It has been reported that PARK doesn't work right on Chinook
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drives. The park routine simply issues a SCSI STOP UNIT command to the
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unit selected. However, Seagate, Quantum, and Rodime drives support
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this command, as it is part of the Common Command Set and Apple's SCSI
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variation.
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2) If your subsystem uses an ST-506 drive and a separate SCSI
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controller (in addition to Apple's SCSI card), make sure the drive's
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defects are recorded in the Primary List. The low-level format routine
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will map out primary list defects, but not grown defects. You may have
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to use an IBM or Mac with appropriate software to access the Mode
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Select pages to do this. Check the manual of the Controller. An
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alternative to fixing defects is to run a bad block mapping program
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(ala Mr.Fixit), but this is a less reliable method of finding all the
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media defects.
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3) If your low-level format operation takes a horrendous amount of
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time, your controller is probably doing media Certifies. This is good,
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since all defects are being mapped out for you. Be patient.
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4) SCSI HACKER won't run if it doesn't find an Apple SCSI card and at
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least one Unit on the SCSI Bus that will respond to a UNIT READY
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command. Therefore, the program won't work if you try to use it with
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anyone elses Apple Disk Controller card.
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5) The permissable Interleave Factors are governed by the physical
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number of sectors on your drive. For standard RLL 26 sector units, you
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can use from 0 to 25 (0 or 1 will both format out to an interleave
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factor of 1). For 13 sector MFM drives, expect a range of 0 through
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12. SCSI HACKER won't format if you specify a number out of range and
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will report an error message.
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6) All error numbers reported are passed from the SmartPort and/or
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ProDOS 8. See APDA's SCSI reference manual or the ProDOS 8 reference
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manual for a list of error codes and their meanings.
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Most of all, have Fun! And I hope I took a little mystery out of this
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Hard disk game.
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-Joe
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