Re: PR #40571 - NetBSD Atari install fails to prepare 16GB MTRON SSD on ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge

I can't be sure, but I believe it is just sending a SCSI format command.

My Seagate is probably 10 yrs old at this point so it's probably not what 
you'd consider modern.  It does appear to wipe the drive as it takes a very 
long time for the format to complete (hours).

The ACARD/MTRON returns from the format command very quickly, which would 
normally indicate that there was no data re-write.  But on the other hand, 
it is a very fast SSD, so it's a little unclear.

In any case, David Brownlee is investigating.

David Ross
[email protected]


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julian Coleman" <[email protected]>
To: "NetBSD port-atari mailing list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 5:46 AM
Subject: Re: PR #40571 - NetBSD Atari install fails to prepare 16GB MTRON 
SSD on ACARD SCSI to IDE bridge


> Hi,
>
>>                                                          Here's the
>> relevant portion of the dmesg:
>> http://i44.tinypic.com/ac5yl3.jpg
>
> This looks fine.
>
>> Here's the first part of the MTRON/ACARD disklabel:
>> http://i42.tinypic.com/2lc4sgw.jpg
>
> Whereas this is wierd.  We must be overflowing somewhere in the disklabel
> reading code.
>
>> So even though I zero'd the drive, the disklabel is wacky.  When I did 
>> the
>> zero'ing operation it completed super fast (a few seconds).  My 
>> assumption
>> was because the device is a solid state drive.  But I can imagine it's
>> possible that the ACARD's implementation of the SCSI zero'ing command is
>> "cheating" and not fully overwriting the disk with zeros.
>
> Is it sending a SCSI format command?  Most modern drives return quickly 
> from
> that as well and don't actually re-write data.
>
> Thanks,
>
> J
>
> -- 
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>