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To: Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>
cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, hardware@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Strange error message 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 06 Oct 1997 09:05:21 CST."
             <199710061505.JAA00189@rocky.mt.sri.com> 
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Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 00:58:21 +0930
From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
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> > 
> > The interrupt timeout suggests that either the drive electronics have 
> > died, or that you have a connector problem; have you tried removing and
> > replugging it?
> 
> I'll try that now.  Sigh, the same thing happens. :(

OK, probably scratch connector problems then.

> Even more interesting is that I can fsck the /usr partition w/out any
> problems.
...
> > It's possible that the error is such that the firmware on the drive 
> > crashes trying to deal with it, and this is the cause of the disk 
> > "cycling" as you describe it.  
> 
> That's what I'm thinking.

I'd have to rate it pretty high on the probable scale.

> > I'm mildly puzzled that the disk works at all in any other situation.  
> > What sort of disk is it?  You say "second" above; do you have another 
> > identical unit?
> 
> No, I have a smaller 'spare' drive that I keep -current installed on.
> My primary disk has two partitions, one for Win95, the other FreeBSD.  I
> can read all of the DOS partition, and all but the root partition on the
> FreeBSD side.

What sort of connector does the drive have?  Is it a standard small-IDE 
connector?  If so, get a standard<->small IDE adapter and stick the 
drive in a desktop system.  Suck off all your data, and blow a DOS 
partition onto it.  If you can format the DOS partition OK (no errors), 
then I'll be mildly surprised.  If not, you have a warranty return on 
your hands.

mike