Solaris 9 won't recognize Seagate IDE drive
Tarantula Consulting
Before I ask my question let me just say that I've tried many other
avenues to resolve this problem before asking you on this mailing list.
I recently bought a Seagate Barracuda 7200 320GB IDE drive and I'm
trying to add it to my Sun Ultra10 machine (running SunOS 5.9 / Solaris
9) but I can't seem to get the /usr/sbin/format command to recognize
the drive correctly.
So far I have been able to:
- physicall install the drive
- run format on it to generate a disk entry in /etc/format.dat
- use the format > partition menu to partition the drive
- label the volume
- add an entry to /etc/vsftab to mount it on startup
- copy a bunch of files to the mounted drive
The problem is that format does not seem to recognize the drive
properly. What follows is the default disk profile it created, compared
to the manufacturer's specs for the drive:
(see http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/specs/ata/st3320620a.html)
/etc/format.dat
(generated by /usr/sbin/format)
disk_type = "ST3320620A" \
: ctlr = ata : ncyl = 255 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 257 \
: nhead = 16 : nsect = 255 : rpm = 5400
partition = "original" \
: disk = "ST3320620A" : ctlr = ata \
: 2 = 0, 1040400 : 6 = 0, 1040400
(generated by me by hand)
disk_type = "Seagate Barracuda 320GB" \
: ctlr = ata : ncyl = 1024 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 1026 \
: nhead = 256 : nsect = 63 : rpm = 7200
partition = " Seagate Barracuda 320GB" \
: disk = "Seagate Barracuda 320GB" : ctlr = ata \
: 2 = 0, 628746395 : 6 = 0, 628746395
The Solaris-generated disk profile is completely wrong, and the
partition is only 500MB in size! My partition is trying to create a
300GB slice on c0t1d0s6.
I entered the correct specs (I think) for the disk by manually editing
/etc/format.dat. The specs say 1024 cylinders, so I assumed I want to
use all for data storage (ncyl = number of cylinders for data storage),
and the examples I saw use 2 alternate cylinders (acyl = alternate
cylinders, used to repair bad sectors) and the physical cylinders
(pcyl) is always ncyl + acyl.
The format command seems to be ok with my disk profile, but it
complains about the sector size being "out of range" when I try to use
the cusom partition for this drive.
Basically I just want one big partition to use as much of the drive as
possible (eg. 320GB) for data storage.
Right now I have a 320GB drive mounted as a 500MB drive. I confirmed
that this is a hard limit by copying a large directory tree to the
drive. Sure enough, it says no space left on device after 500MB.
Here is the actual output from the format command:
# format
Searching for disks...done
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t0d0 <ST320011A cyl 38790 alt 2 hd 16 sec 63>
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/dad@0,0
1. c0t1d0 <drive type unknown>
/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/dad@1,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 1
AVAILABLE DRIVE TYPES:
0. Seagate Barracuda 320GB
1. ST320011A
2. other
Specify disk type (enter its number): 0
selecting c0t1d0
[disk formatted, no defect list found]
format> partition
partition> select
0. Seagate Barracuda 320GB
Specify table (enter its number)[0]: 0
partition 2: specified # of blocks, 628746395, is out of range
partition> print
Current partition table (Seagate Barracuda 320GB):
Total disk cylinders available: 1024 + 2 (reserved cylinders)
Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks
0 root wm 0 0 (0/0/0)
0
1 swap wu 0 0 (0/0/0)
0
2 backup wu 0 - 38983 299.81GB (38984/197/32)
628746395
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0)
0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0)
0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0)
0
6 usr wm 0 - 38983 299.81GB (38984/197/32)
628746395
7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0)
0
partition> label
Ready to label disk, continue? y
Warning: error writing VTOC.
Warning: no backup labels
Label failed.
I tried the latest format.dat file on the Internet but this did not
help. Also, I contacted Seagate and they told me they don't provide
firmware for ATA drives and that I should buy a hard drive directly
from Sun.
Am I wasting my time here, or is there a chance I can actually get this
Seagate drive mounted and configured properly on my Sun Ultra10?
Thank you,
Ian
Daniel Rock
[...]
You could have saved some money. The IDE controller in the Ultra-10
cannot use a larger disk than 137GB.
--
Daniel
Tarantula Consulting
Fortunately, I got a good deal on the drive and I can still use it in
another box. :-)
On Nov 1, 3:43 pm, "Daniel Rock" <v200...@deadcafe.de> wrote:
> Tarantula Consulting <i...@tarantulaconsulting.com> wrote:[...]
Doug McIntyre
>Before I ask my question let me just say that I've tried many other
>avenues to resolve this problem before asking you on this mailing list.
>I recently bought a Seagate Barracuda 7200 320GB IDE drive and I'm
>trying to add it to my Sun Ultra10 machine (running SunOS 5.9 / Solaris
>9) but I can't seem to get the /usr/sbin/format command to recognize
>the drive correctly.
...
>Am I wasting my time here, or is there a chance I can actually get this
>Seagate drive mounted and configured properly on my Sun Ultra10?
You're wasting your time. This 8-year old Sun workstation's IDE
controller is pre ATA/133, so it can only recognize drives up to 128GB
much like any PC of the era.
Frank Langelage
> Hello,
>
> Before I ask my question let me just say that I've tried many other
> avenues to resolve this problem before asking you on this mailing list.
>
> I recently bought a Seagate Barracuda 7200 320GB IDE drive and I'm
> trying to add it to my Sun Ultra10 machine (running SunOS 5.9 / Solaris
> 9) but I can't seem to get the /usr/sbin/format command to recognize
> the drive correctly.
>
It's probably a problem of the "old" IDE controller used in your box.
Use google and you'll find a lot of problem reports like this one
http://forum.sun.com/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=67146 for example.
Richard B. Gilbert
No chance!!!! It's a limit in the Sun EIDE controller. The biggest
disk you can have in an Ultra 5/10 is 127GB. I think this applies to
Sun EIDE controllers in all Sun systems. In the case in point, you have
to remember that the Ultra 5/10s are relics of the late 1990s when 20GB
was a big disk.
Install your new toy in a PC somewhere and enjoy it there. Get a <=127GB
disk for your Ultra 10.
If you really need a 320GB drive in your Ultra 10 you'll have to use
SCSI; no way is EIDE going to work.
koner...@gmail.com
~Arjun