Many thanks to all the people that have responded to my request:
Jonathan Loh <jloh@futon.SFSU.EDU>
john@oncology.uthscsa.edu (John Justin Hough)
blymn@awadi.com.AU (Brett Lymn)
Eckhard.Rueggeberg@ts.go.dlr.de (Eckhard Rueggeberg)
ulla@dmi.min.dk (Ulla Fischer)
grevemes@VTC.TACOM.Army.Mil (Steven Grevemeyer)
The original posting was:
> Hello!
> We are trying to install a Quantum Prodrive 1800S fast SCSI-2 1.8GB disk drive
> on a Sun SS10-30 running SunOS 4.1.3 .
> The disk came without any label, and we do not have,
> neither found in previous news postings, nor written by ourselves
> the correct format.dat entry for this disk.
> Does anybody know the format.dat entry for this disk model?
>
> Thank you very much! I will summarize the answers.
>
> P. Vatsolaki
> Foundation of Research and Technology - Hellas
> Institute of Computer Science
The format.dat that that worked for us was based on the suggestions
of John Justin Hough (john@oncology.uthscsa.edu ):
disk_type = "Quantum ProDrive 1800S" \
: ctlr = SCSI : fmt_time = 4 \
: ncyl = 2536 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 2536 : nhead = 14 : nsect = 99 \
: rpm = 5400 : bpt = 50688
All the replies that I have received so far are listed below:
============================================================================
>From jloh@futon.sfsu.edu Wed Jul 6 01:29:39 1994
Subject: Re: Request for format.dat entry for Quantum prodrive 1800S
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 94 15:32:24 PDT
pay close attention to 5.1 of the faq
Archive-name: sun-managers-faq
Sun-Managers' Frequently Asked Questions
$Id: faq,v 3.42 1994/04/21 23:20:02 jdd Exp $
.....
.....
.....
5.1) What is the format.dat entry for drive X?
The answer can vary according to what OS you are running, the
architecture of your machine or the type of SCSI/SMD/IPI controller you
are using. Opinions also vary on how to format once you have all the
information you need. If you are buying a Sun supported drive, you will
likely find an entry for it in "/etc/format.dat". On third party
drives, you should inquire with the vendor you bought it from. If you
are on your own, contact the manufacturer, or try to get hold of the
manufacturer's OEM manual for your drive model. You might be able to
derive enough information from the manual to make up your own entry.
Some drive manufacturers run "bulletin boards" with drive information on
them:
Fujitsu America BBS 408 944 9899
Seagate BBS USA/Can 408 438 8771
Seagate BBS England 44 62 847 8011
Seagate BBS Germany 49 89 140 9331
Seagate BBS Singapore 65 292 6973
Seagate BBS Australia 61 2 756 2359
Maxtor BBS 303 678 2222
Micropolis BBS 818 709 3310
Quantum BBS 408 894 3214
Conner BBS 408 456 4415 / 408 456 3200
It is also possible to contact drive manufacturers by telephone.
Some relevant numbers:
Fujitsu USA 800-626-4686
408-432-1300
Fujitsu FAXLINE 408-428-0456
Fujitsu Canada 416-602-5454
800-263-7091
Hitachi USA 800-HIT-ACHI
Hitachi HITFAX 800-HIT-FAX1
Maxtor USA 800-2MA-XTOR
Micropolis USA 800-395-3748
Seagate USA 800-468-3472
408-438-8222
Seagate FAX 408-438-8137
Seagate FAXBACK 408-438-2620
Quantum USA 800-826-8022
Conner USA 408-456-3247
408-456-4500
Conner Tech 800-426-6637
Conner FAXBACK 408-456-4903
A format.dat file containing entries submitted by various people is
available for anonymous ftp from ra.mcs.anl.gov in
/sun-managers/format.dat. It is currently maintained by John DiMarco
(jdd@cdf.toronto.edu). New entries (especially vendor-suggested ones)
are welcome; mail them to sun-managers-format@eecs.nwu.edu
Note: do not post a format.dat request to the list or to the
comp.sys.sun.admin newsgroup unless you have exhausted all these avenues.
If you have a SCSI disk on a sun4c, sun4m, sun4e, or sun4d running
SunOS 4.1.1 or later, grab John DiMarco's scsiinfo program from
ftp.cdf.toronto.edu:/pub/scsiinfo. It will query the disk directly,
and generate an appropriate format.dat entry
Tips for rolling your own format.dat:
- For SCSI disks, any combination of cylinders, heads, and sectors that
does not add up to more than the rated formatted capacity of the drive
will normally work. A grossly different geometry may result in some
slight performance degradation, but it should still work. The SCSI protocol
hides most of the drive details from the host, and hence the host need not
know much about the drive to format or use it.
============================================================================
>From john@oncology.uthscsa.edu Wed Jul 6 02:19:39 1994
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 1994 17:59:16 +0600
From: john@oncology.uthscsa.edu (John Justin Hough)
Subject: Re: Request for format.dat entry for Quantum prodrive 1800S
Penh,
Below are what I use, (more than one name because each time I have
added one I used a new name). I'd like to note that for some reason
I actually had to define the type because the speed was zero and
newfs wouldn't layout a partition until I actually set it.
Hope these help.
john
disk_type = "QUANTUM-PD1800S-3162" \
: ctlr = SCSI : fmt_time = 4 \
: ncyl = 2536 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 2536 : nhead = 14 : nsect = 99 \
: rpm = 5400
disk_type = "QUANTUM PD1800S" \
: ctlr = SCSI : fmt_time = 4 \
: ncyl = 2536 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 2536 : nhead = 14 : nsect = 99 \
: rpm = 5400
disk_type = "Quantum PD1800S" \
: ctlr = SCSI : fmt_time = 4 \
: ncyl = 2536 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 2536 : nhead = 14 : nsect = 99 \
: rpm = 5400
disk_type = "Quantum ProDrive 1800S" \
: ctlr = SCSI : fmt_time = 4 \
: ncyl = 2536 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 2536 : nhead = 14 : nsect = 99 \
: rpm = 5400
============================================================================
>From blymn@awadi.com.AU Wed Jul 6 04:50:16 1994
Subject: Re: Request for format.dat entry for Quantum prodrive 1800S
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 11:16:36 +0930 (CST)
I suggest you get a copy of the program scsiinfo. This will
automatically build a format.dat entry for the drive after querying
the drive geometry. Much easier than trawling for an entry!
-- Brett Lymn, Computer Systems Administrator, AWA Defence Industries============================================================================ >From Eckhard.Rueggeberg@ts.go.dlr.de Wed Jul 6 09:14:53 1994 Subject: Re: Request for format.dat entry for Quantum prodrive 1800S
Put any label on it e.g. all partitions from 0 to 0, and let scsiping ask the disk itself, nobody should know better. Ask archie where to get scsiping.
Eckhard Rüggeberg eckhard@ts.go.dlr.de
============================================================================ >From ulla@dmi.min.dk Wed Jul 6 10:12:00 1994 Date: Wed, 6 Jul 94 07:14:53 GMT From: ulla@dmi.min.dk (Ulla Fischer) Subject: Re: Request for format.dat entry for Quantum prodrive 1800S
Dear Votsolaki
Install the scsiinfo program. It can among many things generate a format.dat for you. Just label the disk with some label belonging to a disk smaller than 1.8 GB.
Scsiinfo is on:
Host ugle.unit.no (129.241.1.97) Last updated 09:45 22 Jun 1994
Location: /pub/unix/sys FILE -rw-r--r-- 16361 bytes 15:08 25 Jan 1994 scsiinfo-3.1.shar.gz
Host ftp.cs.uni-sb.de (134.96.7.254) Last updated 01:39 28 Jun 1994
Location: /pub/systems/sun FILE -rw-r--r-- 16325 bytes 21:01 15 Jan 1994 scsiinfo-3.1.shar.gz
Host flop.informatik.tu-muenchen.de (131.159.8.35) Last updated 02:30 28 Jun 1994
Location: /pub/outgoing FILE -rw-r--r-- 22730 bytes 03:00 16 Dec 1993 scsiinfo-1.0.shar FILE -rw-r--r-- 12970 bytes 03:00 16 Dec 1993 scsiinfo-2.2.shar.gz
Host ftp.cs.uni-sb.de (134.96.7.254) Last updated 01:39 28 Jun 1994
Location: /pub/systems/sun FILE -rw-r--r-- 16534 bytes 23:16 4 Jun 1994 scsiinfo-3.2.shar.gz
Yours,
Ulla Fischer Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut Email: ulla@dmi.min.dk Edb-afdelingen Phone: + 45 39 15 75 00 Lyngbyvej 100 Phone: + 45 39 15 75 54 2100 Koebenhavn 0 Fax: + 45 39 15 75 98 Denmark ============================================================================
>From grevemes@VTC.TACOM.Army.Mil Wed Jul 6 16:00:35 1994 From: grevemes@VTC.TACOM.Army.Mil (Steven Grevemeyer) Subject: Re: Request for format.dat entry for Quantum prodrive 1800S Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 08:52:07 -0400 (EDT)
Found this:
# Quantum BBS 408 434 1664 # Quantum USA 408-894-4000
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