SCSI Sector Size Problem

Robert Sheehy (rsheehy@ac4.jjc.cc.il.us)
Thu, 31 Oct 1996 09:35:42 -0600


I appoligize in advance, this is not STRICTLY releated to the linux kernel,
but the linux kernel did help me detect part of the problem I'm having,
so I'm posting here for some help...

A while ago I was given 2 SCSI 1 gig hard drives. The problem with the
drives is that the machine will not recognize them. The Adaptec card sees
them for a second, and then throughs them out because of "invalid sector
size" or something to that affect. I could not find ANYTHING in DOS, Win95,
or OS/2 that would recogize the drive after boot up (and I have ALOT of
diag utils for all OS's). The only thing that recognized it was the linux
kernel. It gave a message on bootup, during the scdi device check, that it
detected the drives, but then it threw them out saying that they were using
a sector size of 520 bytes instead of the 512 it should be using. I have no
idea what happened to the drives (Remember, I have 2, both have the same
problem). I called up Hewlet Packard (makers of the drive), and they said
the model that I had was an OEM drive, and that they weren't supporting it
(bastards), and sent me on my merry way. My question is; is there a way I
can change the sector size, or get SOME OS to even recogzize it? Is there
anything I can do, or is it just a paperweight now? Thanks for any help
anyone can give me.

Robert Sheehy
rsheehy@ac4.jjc.cc.il.us
http://www.inside.net/phorgotten_dreams
ftp://ftp.inside.net/pub/phorgotten_dreams