Re: "Invalid Media Format" error

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Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 08:05:10 +0000 (UTC)

Hans Vlems <hvlems.dotweg@zonnet.nl> wrote:
: "John F" <john@SeeSigForAddress.invalid.com> schreef:
: > Got several Seagate ST15150N's (aka RZ29B's) that don't seem
: > to want to mount/foreign or initialize, giving "Invalid Media
: > Format" for both commands, regardless of switches/attributes
: > I try to tack on. The disks are recognized okay using sh dev,
: > both before and after boot, and scsi chain tests okay, etc.
: > This is all on a DECstation 3000 600 running Alpha VMS 7.3
: > booted off an RZ28 on the same chain.
: > The only possible clue I noticed is that some ST15150N's
: > (from an older batch) that do mount okay report 4.29GB from
: > >>> sh dev, whereas these report 4.28GB.
: > Google search turned up suggestions like
: > init/over=(own,acc,exp), but that gives an error like
: > "attribute not appropriate for device type" (override only
: > applies to tapes). A few other google suggestions also didn't
: > work. Any way to init these disks? I'm happy to clobber any
: > data on them. Thanks,

: Are you sure the ST15150N is an RZ29B?

I was till you asked. http://d-c-p.com/m/s/ST15150N.htm indicates
it's a DEC-RZ29B-E.

: Its modelnumber translates as a 1 3/4 inch high, 5.1 GB drive
: (unformatted capacity). AFAIK all the RZ 29's were 1 inch drives.

I've got the 1-3/4" ones. But I've also got some identical-looking
drives from an earlier eBay purchase that init and mount (and boot)
just fine. And they screw onto the metal "sole plates" that snap
into the plastic "drive carrier" of a VAXstation 60 or 90 just fine,
too. You can get two of them onto the carrier, top and bottom,
and their height seems to be precisely the maximum height the
carrier is meant to accommodate.

: The error message though either indicates that a jumper was not set
: correctly, or the drives are toast.

During my google search, I'd noticed that the "wizard" also
mentioned jumper settings as a possible problem --
     http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_2416.html
At the time I didn't think that was likely to be relevant to
this case. As per the jumpers illustrated at
     http://www.seagate.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/scsi/st15150n.txt
only the scsi id (1 in my case) and the Enable Motor Start
(so the drive won't spin up till requested) are jumpered.
I don't see anything that looks like it might adversely affect
the drive's electrical characteristics or behavior on the bus
(once the bus tests okay), but I'd be more than happy to try
jumpering anything you suggest.

: Did you try ANALYZE/MEDIA?

Catch-22: analyze requires the drive to be mount/foreign, but
mount gives the "invalid media format" error I'm trying to
analyze.

: The documentation is on line:
: http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/search/bymodelnumber

Thanks, Hans.

-- 
John Forkosh  ( mailto:  j@f.com  where j=john and f=forkosh )

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