Re: Need help formatting Hard Drive....please...

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <ZK89Obo.rocketusa@delphi.com>,
Rocket Press...a Litmag  <rocketusa@delphi.com> wrote:
> Okay, I traded for a twenty meg hard drive w/ apple scsi rev.2

I assume you mean an Apple High-Speed SCSI card?

>...either how, it had System 6.0 on it and my IIgs couldn't cope w/ it
> (not enough mem)... 

What, you only have 512K or 768K of RAM?  I'd recommend getting more
memory before trying to use a hard drive, unless you only want to use
the IIgs as a fast IIe.

> So I figured I'd just reformat the thing.  CopyIIPlus 9.0 seemed like a good
> way to go, but then IO errors kept coming up...

I wouldn't trust Copy II+ to format a hard drive.  I've only ever used
it for formatting floppies.

If you had enough memory, I'd suggest using GS/OS to format it.  As
you don't, I'd suggest using Apple II System Utilities.

I doubt it will make any difference.  If Copy II+ says it is getting
I/O errors, it is probably telling the truth.

The most likely reasons for I/O errors:

1. A faulty drive.  Small (i.e. old) SCSI drives probably try to do a
   format when the computer requests it (new drives usually ignore the
   request).

2. Bad SCSI communications of some kind, e.g. bad termination, or a faulty
   cable.

> but I was able to access it previously by booting w/some other system
> disk)... 

In that case, I'd say that the drive is faulty.  I have a Rodime drive
that works fine as long as I don't try to format it.  It then gets I/O
errors all the time, and doesn't actually manage to do the format
(some data is wiped).

I believe this is because the "maintenance track" on the drive
(contains critical information about the drive geometery, used by the
drive's built-in firmware) is damaged.  The drive has to be able to
read this track to be able to format itself.

Your drive might have the same problem.

In my case, the only solution would be if I could get hold of a
low-level formatting kit which is only available to the drive
manufacturer.  It isn't worth the hassle, as it is no longer my main
drive.

> Does anyone know of any solutions?

Again, using GS/OS would be much easier here.  My best suggestion:
don't try to format the drive.  Just "erase" it, which should write an
empty directory to the drive.  If there are bad sectors on it (quite
possible), you will have great difficulty using the drive, unless you
have a utility program that can locate them and lock them out by
creating a "bad block" file.

> A 20 meg drive would be nice --I've already decided upon the main
> programs I use (Word Perf 2.1, Graphic Writer 3, Proterm)...20 megs
> is the right size...I just have to format the thing! 

You won't be able to run GraphicWriter III if you don't have enough
memory to run System 6.
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand