I can Partition, but not format????

[resinboy]

Hi gang: just installed a 9 gig IBM scsi 10kdrive. Running a Tekram 390-f scsi card. The guy I bought it from said he did a low- level format, to wipe his info before shipping it to me. The drive is recognized fine by my card. I ran FDISK, made 1 large partition, rebooted. When I try to FORMAT C: , I keep getting "invalid command". It is labelled c: in the scsi bios: I am doing this with my old drive disconnected( an IDE IBM)so that I won't make a stupid mistake . All I really want to do is mirror this drive, to make it my primary boot drive. I tried ( again) to simplt run Drive Copy, but got an error code not listed (of course)stating "invalid drive number".
I am a DOS moron, so please make any and all suggestions. I thought maybe I needed a different scsi cable than the one I am using, but my card seems to access the drive fine with certain commands. This scsi drive has a ton of jumper settings on it: I have it set to device 1: I have the scsi bios set to boot fron device 1, and my mainboard bios set to boot from floppy, scsi.

 

[pm]

Dumb question, but do you have the format.com command available to run? It needs to be on the floppy/(whatever you are booting from) in order to execute.

 

[resinboy]

hell, no, that's not a dumb question at all!!( he says hanging his head low) . I am booting into DOS from a Windows 98 install disk. I assumed( yeah, stupid) it would be on there? If not, where do I copy it from, and how would I reference the A drive, in order to format the C drive? Spell it out plain and simple for Mr. Overclock who can't even get his drive going

 

[pm]

On old DOS installs it would in c:\DOS. More recently it's usually located in c:\windows\command. Do a search for it. I believe it's also in the root of the Windows CD.

Once you get it onto the floppy, you want to (typically):

go to the a: drive (type "a:&quot
type "format c: /s /u /v"

("/s" for make the HD bootable, "/u" for unconditional.. it's habit, and "/v" to be able to name the HD... also habit)

and then wait a while

 

[BuckMaster]

If your using a Win98 Bootdisk it should be on it.
To find out just go to the DOS prompt and switch over to your A: drive and type DIR and it will show you what all is on the floppy. You should see Format.com. Are you typeing at the A: prompt ----> Format C:

Also did you set your partion active? If not do so.

 

[obenton]

It's in the cabinet file, which becomes a ram drive with whatever letter it's assigned.

 

[Warrenton]

you need to Low Level format with your SCSI card. When he formated it, it more than likely used different settings that what your card likes. Try that.

 

[resinboy]

good morning- here's the latest update I checked the Windows boot floppy and saw that it didn't have the Format program on it: I copied it from the windows cd, and added it to the floppy. Rebooted, when asked if I wanted to use the entire disk for the primary dos partition, I replied yes,and did the format with no problems. Robooted, tried Drive Copy again, no luck- same "invalid drive number" error again. Hooked up my IDE boot drive,rebooted, Windows hangs at the splash screen. Booted into safe mode, Both drives were recognized under My Computer( that's a good thing). Tried a cut and paste of all of the main folders, from the Ide to the scsi,it starts the file copy, and then hangs( again, sounds like a communication problem with the scsi drive). Went in to Device Manager, checked the scsi drive( seeing if there was a DMA box that needed to be checked) saw no DMA box. It had the following options checkedisconnect, Sync data transfer, Int 13 unit. Went up a level, and for the hell of it, checked other devices, and noticed in almost every instance, there were duplicate versions of almost every piece of hardware( sometimes 3 or 4!)Removed all of the duplicates, rebooted- same thing.
I am getting the impression I either have an incompatibility issue between my scsi card,( I doubt) and this drive, or I am missing the picture on the jumper set- up.
Now, here is something I noticed. I originally thought this was a scsi 2 drive I have, but after researching it some more on the IBM website, it looks like I have an LVD scsi 3 drive with a 4 meg buffer. I am using the 68 pin cable that came with my Tekram, but it is not specifically an LVD cable( to my knowledge). Also, I noticed that my card does is not listed as supporting LVD, but the top of the line Tekram does. Is this the problem?

 

[resinboy]

UPDATE! OK, I connected a jumper on the front of the drive marked "Force SE Mode", because I noticed the terminator jumper says "Term. Power, SE Only". I tried Drive Copy again, and Voila' scsi drive mirrored from the IDE drive. Now, the big test- CAN I BOOT? Disconnected the IDE drive, went in to scsi card bios, set all of the boot addresses to ID 0( drive defaults to ID 0 with no jumper- I had to use this jumper elsewhere ), fired up FDISK, to verify that the partition was active (ok), and booted. Was happy as hell to see the Splash screen, HOWEVER, after the drive works for about 15 seconds or so, I get stuck in a repetitve loop at the same place. Reboots itself, gets to the splash screen, reboots. I can get into safe mode ok, but don't know WHERE TO GO FROM HERE!!!
Any further suggestions? I am sooooooooo close!!!!

 

[resinboy]

ttt

 

[Warrenton]

AH HAH!!! Just figured it out. That drive does not have any termination. You need to use an external terminator. I assume its a 68-pin drive, Ultra160. When you turn the term for SE on it stil doesn't terminate if I remember correctly.

 

[resinboy]

thanks for the response! Interestingly, I have been trying out different jumper combos, and noticed no difference with the Term jumper shorted.
UPDATE---
I just found a paragraph saying they do not have internal termination! ( You got it Warrenton!!!)( a little tiny footnote!!!)

When looking at scsi cables, I came across a site with terminators. Could you please tell me if these sound right:
LVD/U2W 68PIN INT TERMINATORS - [ SEE SCSI CONNECTORS ]
(Note: HPDB68Female connectors)

My drive says:IBM DRVS SCSI LVD
According to the IBM site, it is an Ultrastar 9LZX, 68 pin,10,200 rpm




LVD Terminator Female - Order# TML-LVDU2-68F $ 24.95
(LVD terminators are used for LVD/U2W 80MB/Sec chains only)
LVD/SE Terminator Female - Order# TML-LVDSE-68F $ 34.95
(LVD/SE terminators are used for Mix/Match LVD & SCSI III Devices on one chain)

Since I do not intend to add anything else on this chain( absolutely no more room)I guess I should just get the 1st style of connector?

 

[Warrenton]

Get the LVD/SE terminatory. Since youre running the drive in SE mode, you need that. Plus you want the LVD just incase you ever do get an LVD controller.

 

[beer]

By default, it seems that format.com is nto on a startup disk.

Just copy it from another comptuer or from the windows/command.


it's gotten me a few times too

 

[resinboy]

Thanks for all the help, gang, I have ordered a Terminator( said with an Arnold accent), and should have it by Wed, or so. I'll post back to let you know how it goes