Re: "Invalid Media Format" error

From: John F (john_at_SeeSigForAddress.com)
Date: 06/30/04 

Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 09:57:26 +0000 (UTC)

Joe H. Gallagher <dtrwiz@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
: John F wrote:
: > 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,

: Have you considered the possibility that the disk may not be
: formatted at 512 bytes per block. I recently got a batch of
: ST15150N disks from eBay which were formatted at 520 bytes
: per block. They gave fatal parity errors on INIT and MOUNT
: on a microVAX 3100/90 until low level formatted (at 512).
: Joe

That hadn't occurred to me. Could you explain how to do it
(either on Alpha or VAX VMS). The only relevant discussion
I managed to google up was
   http://dbforums.com/showthread.php?t=443712&page=1&pp=15
The original poster seems to have eventually used dd on an
Intel/Linux PC with an Adaptec scsi card, after having failed
on his Alpha. Thanks, 

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

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