This is the README for formatter.1.2.N.b.tar.gz [Download] [Browse] [Up]
formatter 1.2
=============
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 91 13:06:30 PST
Subject: Version 1.2
Feb 16, 1991
Here is the promised version 1.2 of my disk formatting
utility. Please destroy any earlier versions you see floating around,
there was a MAJOR bug that affects people formatting drives other than
the Fujitsu M226XS family.
Bug fixes:
1) the automated disktab entry algorithm was improved yet
again. My entries now exactly match those generated by NeXT for all of
the NeXT formatted drives I could gain access to (about 3 different
models). This last improvement was VERY minor, it will increase the
size of your disk by 1 block. I really do not think it is worth the
effort to rebuild your disk if you used an earlier version. 2) Only
the logical sector size and not the physical sector size was being set
to 1024 bytes if your drive was NOT a Fujitsu. This bug appeared in
every version since 1.0, where it was introduced. My regression
testing did not pick this bug up since I had already set the physical
block size of my test disks to 1024 bytes. The utility would happily
set the logical size to 1024 bytes and leave the physical sector size
at whatever it was previously! I was too lazy to reformat my drives
back to 512 byte sectors every time I regression tested. Sorry if
this caused you undo stress! Once again, this bug DID NOT affect
Fujitsu drives!
New features:
1) Better (hopefully) help information again. Please read this!
The most major change has to do with the synchronous transfer jumper
settings of the Fujitsu M2263XS family on 030 cubes. It seems that the
boot roms in the old cubes can not negotiate or reject synchronous
transfer bids during the boot sequence. In my system (which is an 030
until my much awaited upgrade comes in) I did not see this problem for
the following reason: I still had a valid kernel on the disk with the
next higher SCSI ID. The NeXT would try to boot off of my Fujitsu,
give up because of the synchronous transfer bidding, go on to the next
SCSI device, load the kernel, (which appears to be able to handle the
bidding), and SWITCH BACK to the Fujitsu! So I now have answers to all
of the outstanding "It-works-fine-for-me-but-you-have-a-problem"
issues.
Outstanding issues:
1) The history info for version 1.2 is incorrect, however, I did
not want to turn another revision just for that.
Rory.
P.S. extraction instructions: save the stuff between the two lines
labeled "CUT HERE" to a file called foob. Next type "uudecode foob",
which will create the file "formatter_1.2.tar.Z". Next type
"uncompress formatter_1.2.tar.Z". Next type "tar xvf
formatter_1.2.tar". This should produce an executable file. Any of
the intermmediate files created (foob, formatter_1.2.tar) may now be
deleted.
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 91 13:12:50 PST
Return-Path: <rory@dreamit.fps.com>
Subject: README file
Status: R
Feb. 19,1991
Hello!
This is a form letter response to general questions about
Formatter. There are currently about 60 people across the country who
are in contact with me and who are using this program. The current
version is 1.2. Please make an effort to remove previous versions you
may find. If formatter does not appear at your local FTP sites, please
feel free to upload it AND THIS README FILE. Please make sure to tar
and compress the files before uploading. It would also be a good idea
to use the following naming convention:
formatter_1.2.tar.Z ( the actual program )
formatter.readme.tar.Z ( this file )
Advantages to reformatting:
1) expect about 5% greater capacity from your drive. This may not be
worth the effort for small drives as illustrated below:
40MB -> 41MB
80MB -> 82MB
100MB -> 105MB
300MB -> 315MB
600MB -> 630MB
1200MB -> 1260MB
These are just examples of about what to expect. The actual capacity of your
drive will be affected by things such as the amount of space reserved
for flaw mapping. Also, marketing hype usually calls a Mbyte 1000000
bytes instead of 1048576 bytes, which confuses many people. Speed
improvements have been reported by some, however they are VERY SLIGHT.
If you own a Fujitsu M226XS drive, the caching parameters will be
modified to give approximately a 15% increase in the maximum transfer
rate. Transfer rates are dependent on the length of your SCSI bus and
the number of SCSI devices attached to your bus. In my system I
observed the transfer rate of my M2263S to go from 700Kbytes/second to
800Kbytes/second. There is also some confusion as to disk transfer
rates. Most, if not all, disk manufacturers quote maximum BURST
transfer rates, or the rate at which data can be transfered to/from
the drive's ram buffer. These figures are often in the 4 to 5
Megabyte/second range. The numbers I refer to are the maximum
SUSTAINABLE transfer rates, which include command processing times in
your computer, the disk drive, and the actual reading/writing of the
data from/to the disks physical media.
Disadvantages to reformatting:
This destroys all of the data on the disk being formatted. BE
CAREFUL! Also, you will need to be familiar with fstabs, disktabs,
builddisk, etc. Many people do not want to hassle with system
administration such as this. All of the info needed is in NeXT's
manuals, however, this is not something a novice would want to do. As
a side note, it should be noted that hooking up SCSI devices is not
simply "plug and play". There is a risk of damaging all of the disks
on your computer and the computer itself if you do not know what you
are doing. SCSI bus termination is yet another thing that confuses
many. If you are not sure, ASK SOMEONE WHO IS! Also, do not take
everthing you read on UUNET NEWS as the truth!
Rory Bolt
rory@fps.com
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.