SUMMARY: Problems with formating an SMD drive on SunOS 4.1.2

From: Gustavo Vegas (gustavo@davinci.concordia.ca)
Date: Wed Sep 16 1992 - 15:11:13 CDT


Hello Sunmanagers,
        A few days ago, I wrote a message asking for help formating
a Seagate Sabre 9720-1230 disk, attached to a Xylogics 7053 Controller.
The problem I was having was that the system where this setup is, would
lock up and apparently hang, having the load of the machine increase to
great heights.

        I got 6 responses, which all agreed that the "system lockup" is
the normal behaviour in the setup I have. Even one person suggested to
not try formating the disk in multi-user mode. This lock-up lasts as long
as the disk is being formatted, and the system goes back to normal when
the verifying passes start.

        Effectively, I tried this one morning, not actually bringing the
system down, but scheduling some down time, so I wouldn't have any users
asking questions. It locked up the system for about 20 minutes, and as
soon as it started doing the verification passes the system came back.
Now we have a couple of new file systems that will fill up probably in
no time ;-).

        Thanks to all those who responded. Some of the messages have a
wealth of information about SMD drives, so, if anyone wants the
concatenation of messages, please send me a request.

Credits to:
        Daniel Strick <dan@breeze.bellcore.com>
        Curt Freeland <curt@ecn.purdue.edu>
        Jay Plett <jay@silence.princeton.nj.us>
        Russ Poffenberger <poffen@sj.ate.slb.com>
        Art Hays - PSTAFF <lsr-vax!art@uunet.UU.NET>

--------
  ==== === ==== =======================+===========================
  = = = = Gustavo Vegas gustavo@davinci.concordia.ca
  === = === Systems Analyst Concordia University
  = = = = Dept. of E&CE Montreal, Canada
  ==== === ==== =======================+===========================



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