HD problem

[mac2geezer]

I just acquired a 36GB Quantum Atlas II HD. Hard Disk Speedtools says there's no Mac partitions so I went to FWB PE and tried to low level format but keep getting "device not ready" msgs. Both utilities see the drive on the bus just fine and the id is okay, no conflicts. I tried both with the drive connected to an internal 68 pin card and through a 50-68 pin adapter in an external enclosure. The documentation I found online is not helpful re this problem.

Anyone out there have any thoughts?

 

[porter]

What are you connecting it to?

Termination?

 

[mac2geezer]

Internally it was an 8600/300, OS 9.1, with a 68 pin terminated ribbon cable. Externally, it was a 9500/G4 OS 9.2.2, standard SCSI cable from the external bus, the enclosure was terminated.

 

[equill]

There are at least two reasons for the occurrence of the 'Not ready' response in my experience. One is that the drive, although partitioned according to Apple, has a damaged driver which the current disk utility is unable either to handshake with or to overwrite with a new driver. The second is that the partition scheme is so foreign to Apple's that the disk utility cannot recognize it as a 'file system'. Rather than repeat them, I refer you to

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4811 and

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1341

InTech's HDST, FWB's HDTK and LaCie's Silverlining will not always 'take over' a drive that does not already have the Apple partition scheme, and the possibility exists that a 36GB has been formatted previously with a Unix-friendly partition scheme. This is not an infrequent happening with 50-pin and SCA 80-pin' pre-loved' drives that were previously used in a server environment. If the logic board of the drive shows one or more patch wires, it is even more possibly the case.

However, if a utility (such as Silverlining) has a GUI that details all of the present drives/volumes and buses, it may also allow you to force a temporary mount for long enough to replace a defective driver. If you can get that far, it may then be possible to reformat the drive to your taste. In extremis, there is also the specialist get-hold-of-the-@#$%&!-thing utility Mt. Everything.

de

 

[mac2geezer]

Thanks for the extensive reply.

The sequence of events I've tried so far are:

Try to "take over" the drive with Hard Disk Speedtools and the response was "Partition Scheme does not conform to Inside Macintosh Vol. V".

Then, tried to low level format using FWB PE and that's when I got the "device not ready" response.

Those are the only disk utilities I have, but will look for a copy of Silverlining.

Thanks again.

 

[Dennis Nedry]

Silverlining Pro 6.5.8 is now a free download from LaCie:

http://www.lacie.com/us/support/drivers/driver.htm?id=10052

 

[equill]

Silverlining 6.5.8 is indeed a useful utility (tautologically speaking), with which I format even drives for use under OS X (up to 10.4.11) if I intend to be able to boot into OS 9.2.2. However, that version of Silverlining will complain if you use it in a 9.1 or lesser environment, for which Silverlining 6.5.1 is much more suitable.

de

 

[Charlieman]

A not-so-helpful response is to low level the disk in a PC or Unix box. Thus when connected to a Mac, it is recognised as a brand new disk.

 

[equill]

Not-at-all not-so-helpful. It is usually the move that saves whatever is left of your hair. Silverlining is not entirely ignorant of FAT16, but not always willing to do it. That new-fangled FAT32, however, is beyond its ken.

de

 

[mac2geezer]

Both Silverlining and Mt Everything see the drive as not ready and of course won't attempt to do anything with it.

So one final question before I give up. There are yellow and green LEDs on the end of the logic board. At initial spin up both are on but after 30 seconds or so the green LED goes out and stays out. Exactly what do these LEDs indicate?

I don't have access to a PC or Unix box, so can't try that.

Thanks to all for the help.

 

[benjgvps]

[quote name="mac2geezer"

I don't have access to a PC or Unix box' date=' so can't try that.

Thanks to all for the help.[/quote]

Linux LiveCD?

 

[equill]

Many, if not most, older SCSI drives had either provision for attachment of a remote LED indicator, or an onboard LED. This is still true of drives intended for operation in servers, where the ability to 'hot-swap' is important. SCA drives often have light-pipes built into their cradles so that the LED activity is visible outside their enclosures. Most often the LED was/is an indicator of activity, meaning data-writing or -reading rather than just spinning. Their MLBs also have diagnostic points for use during testing after manufacture, and (here I speculate) it is quite possible that one of the LEDs on your drive is for that task.

de