Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 11:01:40 -0700 From: Kent Stewart <kstewart@owt.com> To: Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Anyone else having trouble with Samsung 160G drives? Message-ID: <200405101101.40296.kstewart@owt.com> In-Reply-To: <409FBFDC.5020504@potentialtech.com> References: <409FBA92.2030401@potentialtech.com> <200405101029.25080.kstewart@owt.com> <409FBFDC.5020504@potentialtech.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Monday 10 May 2004 10:46 am, Bill Moran wrote: > Kent Stewart wrote: > > On Monday 10 May 2004 10:23 am, Bill Moran wrote: > >>This is the weirdest problem I'm seen in a while. > >> > >>Client bought a pair of 160G Samsung SP1604N ATA drives. I'm > >>supposed to install them in an existing FreeBSD 4.9 system for > >>additional storage space. > >> > >>As soon as the drives are installed, kernel won't boot. It freezes > >>up right before the "ad0: ..." messages appear and won't respond to > >>anything except the reset button. Tried primary slave, secondary > >>slave ... threw in a Highpoint ATA card and tried every possible > >>configuration ... no dice. This was on a relatively new AOpen mobo > >>with a 2G processor (don't have the model # handy, but I'll get it > >> if it's important) > >> > >>Moved the drives into an older 466mhz system ... same effect ... > >> boot locks up at the probe message just before it would normally > >> detect ad0. In this new system, we even tried removing the > >> existing drives altogether and starting from scratch on these > >> drives ... the boot from the CD hangs just like everything else. > >> > >>So ... I brought one back to the office to put in a test machine so > >> I could gather lots of good data, file a PR and get the problem > >> fixed. Threw it into an old lab machine (266 mhz SOYO board) and > >> the sucker WORKS PERFECT! (so much for gathering data for a bug > >> report) > >> > >>So ... I'm at a complete loss as to what I should do ... and a > >> bigger loss on what I should recommend to the client. > > > > I don't think it is the drive unless size is considered. There are > > bios problems when the size goes above 120GB or so. You may be > > bumping into this problem.If that is the case, a bios upgrade may > > let you use the HD. > > That's pretty odd, as the only mobo that the drive works with is has > a bios that's completely unable to understand the drive (the bios > screen says it's 8G). Both of the other machines we tried in > detected the drive size correctly in the bios. > > Are you saying that an older bios that incorrectly detects the drive > is more likely to work than a newer one that _does_ detect it > correctly? Scratch that ... _I'm_ the one that's saying it, since > that's what I'm seeing. No, I was thinking just the opposite. The 160's aren't supposed to work in all of the older bioses. IIRC, you need a larger version of LBA to map the drive. The 8GB is a sign of even older bios problems. The only time I had the hang problem with booting was when I made the drive dangerously dedicated. There are bioses that simply hang at discovery time with a DD drive mounted. I have a 160 Maxtor running in my test machine. There were messages about it not working on all systems but it installed without a problem on 4-stable. It is also very fast for an IDE. I can do a buildworld with an AMD 2400+ in 18 minutes using it for my /usr/obj. -- Kent Stewart Richland, WA http://users.owt.com/kstewart/index.html
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200405101101.40296.kstewart>