[1897] in linux-scsi channel archive
SCSI Mode sense and Format Block/sector size.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Art S. Kagel)
Tue May 20 15:47:20 1997
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 15:30:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Art S. Kagel" <kagel@ns1.bloomberg.com>
To: Linux SCSI forum <linux-scsi@vger.rutgers.edu>
I have a used Seagate ST12550N drive which was used for some
mini-computer systems and formatted with 520byte sectors. I need to
reformat the drive with 512byte sectors as (he hangs his head in shame) I
want to use a portion for a DOS partition (I promise the rest will be for
Linux) and DOS keeps reporting lost clusters even immediately after
formatting.
Anyway, I have a DOS based SCSI Mode utility that will let me set the
sector size in the drive's SCSI mode header (or whatever) and afterward
re-running the utility to read the header shows the change. However, my
controller's built in utility (I have a BusLogic BT958) now shows sector
size 'N/A' where it had shown 520bytes. I tried the low level format
anyway but after it completes the controller and SCSI Mode utilities both
show the sector size reset back to 520bytes! AARRGGHH!
The problem seems to be that the SCSIMode utility lets me change the
sector size in the header but not in the format record. After changing
the header querying the format record shows that the CURRENT sector size
value has been changed but that the DEFAULT sector size value is still
520!
Can anyone help out? Is there a Linux utility to speak ASPI and let me
modify the other SCSIMode records on the drive? Does anyone have
details, or a link to details, on writing such a beast? I am not shy
about writing hardware management utilities and I will contribute such
back to the community at large.
Art S. Kagel, kagel@bloomberg.com
