WD1007V + big Maxtor + DOS + UNIX

[Tom Neff]

After a weekend-from-hell, I wrestled that new WD1007V-SE2 + Maxtor
8760E combo to the mat!  Knock wood.  I learned all sorts of grody stuff
along the way.

 1. When things get weird there is GREAT info on the Western Digital
BBS (+1 714 756 8176) and also the OnTrack BBS (hmm, where is that #).

 2. For full flexibility in formatting the Maxtor you NEED the
diagnostic program IN the WD BIOS; their external WDFMT.EXE will not do
the trick by itself.

I succeeded by doing the following:

---PART ONE----------------------

 * Jumper the WD1007 to
   - enable the WD BIOS
   - DISABLE translation
   - ENABLE alternate sector

 * Run the WD BIOS diagnostic:
   - boot DOS from diskette
   - run DEBUG.COM
   - G=C800:5
 
 * Do a low level format of the whole disk with alternate sector ENABLED
 * Then a surface analysis
 * Save the bad sector information - there should be few of these
   since the alternate sector covers most errors
 * Select the 1630x15x52 drive type (this is untranslated)
 * Exit

 * Run SETUP (on my Intel 402 you use Ctrl-Alt-Ins) and set drive type 1

 * Now reboot DOS and run FDISK; create a 32MB DOS boot partition up
   front of the disk

 * Run FORMAT C:/S and install DOS on the partition, plus whatever else
   you want there

 * Pop the diskette and reboot.  DOS now boots on the hard disk.

---PART TWO----------------------

 * Put the UNIX Base System boot floppy in the drive and reboot.

 * This boots single user UNIX and drops into the install script, which
   runs the UNIX fdisk().

 * Create a huge 'UNIX system' partition next to the leadoff DOS.  On my
   disk this meant cylinders 85-1631.  Do it by specifying actual
   cylinders rather than percentage of disk.

 * IGNORE what fdisk() then tells you!!  Some genius decided to do 10-bit 
   modulo on all the cylinder numbers regardless of what the on-disk 
   table *actually* contains, so it looks like it's telling you that
   instead of creating your new 1540-cylinder partition you only created
   a 576 cylinder one, only used 20% of the disk, etc, etc.  WRONG-O,
   you did actually did do what you wanted, fdisk is just too dumb to
   report its own results properly.  Press on...

 * Make that new UNIX partition bootable, then sit back and answer yes,
   yes, yes, <cr>, <cr>, default answers etc as the rest of the system
   installs.  When it tells you to reboot the system, do it and smile.
   Complete the install normally, from floppy or whatever.

---IN GENERAL-----------------------

 * Make sure that any tech support you talk to understands you're trying
   to teach ***UNIX*** to deal with a big disk.  Ninety-nine percent of
   all the technical support information and software available for these
   big disks and controllers assumes your goal is to give DOS lots of
   storage; most of the drivers, customized BIOS tricks and other
   gimmicks on hand have nothing to do with UNIX.  Remember that UNIX
   drivers do ALL the work themselves, talking straight to the
   controller, and do NOT use the BIOS at all except at startup time to
   get some parameters.  No special tricks are needed for DOS to read
   your leadoff 32MB partition.

 * If you are assembling a new system and you have the choice, get one
   3.5" 1.44 drive and one 5.25" 1.2 drive.  Be prepared to recable if
   needed, to make either one the A: boot drive.  Change the CMOS FIRST.

 * Keep at least one write-protected bootable DOS master disk for EACH
   floppy drive size in your system.  Make sure it contains DEBUG,
   FORMAT, SETUP and FDISK; a sector editor and text editor would be
   nice to have too.

 * When you're ALL done screwing around with your drive cables and are
   ready to bolt the chassis closed for good, check to make sure you're
   not blocking the fan!  It's pretty easy to cover up most of the
   intake.

 * If you have to interrupt the UNIX install process, hit <Del> to go
   the shell, but REMEMBER to type 'uadmin 2 0' before you power down!
   Once you get that boot diskette file system screwed up, you'll be
   unable to get anything done until it's fixed.

 * If you're planning to install UNIX from tape, make *sure* your floppy
   booted kernel has the RIGHT drivers for your tape drive and
   controller.  For instance: I got the Archive 150MB Viper which comes
   with its own controller card and drivers, including a UNIX install
   disk of 386/ix drivers.  Very sweet of them, BUT - useless until I
   have a working UNIX system already installed and ready to rebuild a
   kernel!!  In the meantime all I have is the SCSI tape support built
   into the Base System boot kernel -- which won't drive the tape.  So U
   have to go to another system and transfer my tape to floppies before
   I can install it... or else install the drivers somewhere else and
   copy the resulting kernel to a floppy for booting on the new box.

-- 
Shut up he explained.  ++  Tom Neff
 -- Ring Lardner       ++  tneff at bfmny0.BFM.COM  or  uunet!bfmny0!tneff