M320FMT(1M) (Essential Utilities) M320FMT(1M)
NAME
m320fmt - format disks on the MVME320 disk controller
SYNOPSIS
m320fmt [harddiskenable -h heads -c cylinders] rawdev
DESCRIPTION
The m320fmt utility is used to format disks on the MVME320
controller. Winchester (``hard'') disks are formatted in a
continuous operation which will keep the controller busy
until it completes. Floppy disks are formatted track-by-
track, permitting other I/O operations to intervene.
Support for bad track handling on the MVME320 controller is
done in software only. Therefore the m320fmt utility should
be used only for diskettes or for media that has no defects
listed on the Winchester verification report. To format any
media that contains imperfections or that is to be booted,
use the dinit(1M) utility. Refer to dinit(1M). To perform
the calculations needed to enter the media imperfections
with the dinit utility, use the conversion procedures
described below.
The following options are available:
The string harddiskenable must appear as shown
to enable formatting of a hard disk. It may not
appear if the target disk is a floppy.
-h The number of heads (surfaces per cylinder) on the
target hard disk.
-c The number of cylinders on the target hard disk.
rawdev must be a raw device defined on the target unit
(/dev/rdsk/m320_ ...) . The slice number is
irrelevant for hard disks, but must be one which
spans the entire volume for floppy disks. By
convention, slice 7 is thus defined. M320fmt
generates a warning message if it finds a floppy
slice other than 7.
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M320FMT(1M) (Essential Utilities) M320FMT(1M)
The dinit(1M) utility invokes m320fmt(1M), a disk formatter
for MVME320 devices. dinit enters an interactive mode and
prompts the user for bad track entries. Check the
Winchester verification report supplied by the disk
manufacturer for a list of bad blocks or imperfections on
the disk. If no bad blocks are listed, type a period ( . )
to terminate the bad track handling phase of disk
initialization. The device is assumed to be perfect.
If imperfections are listed on the verification report, you
must perform some calculations to convert the information on
the report into a form recognized by the utility. The dinit
utility expects a list of bad tracks. The Winchester
verification report lists media imperfections in one of two
ways: either the report gives the sector number of the
first bad sector on a track, or the report identifies the
problem area by head number, cylinder number, and byte
offset. To calculate the bad tracks from the information
provided on the verification report, use one of the
following methods, whichever is appropriate to your disk:
METHOD 1: Calculate Bad Tracks from Sector Numbers
To obtain the bad track numbers, divide each sector number
listed in the Winchester verification report by the number
of sectors per track. Since all supported drives
(Miniscribe, Priam, Micropolis, and Toshiba) contain 32
sectors per track, the conversion equation becomes:
track number = (sector number) / 32
METHOD 2: Calculate Bad Tracks from Head and Cylinder Numbers
(cylinder number) x (total # of heads) + (head number) = track number
After m320fmt has formatted the device, dinit sets up the
volume-ID and the configuration sectors, records the bad
track information, and installs the boot loader on the
drive.
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M320FMT(1M) (Essential Utilities) M320FMT(1M)
(NOTE: If a Winchester disk is formatted without making the
required bad track entries, proper operation cannot be
guaranteed.)
BUGS
An error in specifying heads or cylinders for a hard disk
may result in a disk which appears to be correctly formatted
but generates physical I/O errors in high cylinders (bad
precomp values) or seems to have ``lost'' some of its space
(surface mapped out). dinit(1M) references a Motorola-
prepared file which contains accurate values for these
parameters.
SEE ALSO
dinit(1M), mvme320(7).
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M564(7) M564(7)
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