[rescue] Low-level format w/520 byte sectors?

[David Passmore]

On Sat, Nov 24, 2001 at 12:35:50AM -0500, George Adkins wrote:

> perhaps special firmware is required for some monitoring functions or the 
> like, but standard drives work just fine in the one I have.  Dave McGuire has 
> (IIRC) also done the same thing with good results

The Challenge RAID I am speaking of was procured from Dave.

My friend at SGI says this the SGI-specific drive firmware and block size
limitation was intentional. I guess you sell more drives that way.

Bill, the SGI firmware may be had in the latest DG-RAID patch from
support.sgi.com (assuming you have an account). I haven't tried it yet, but
I will let you know how it goes. There is a utility in the patch to update
drive firmware in the Clariion, so I believe if I can figure out a way to
format a drive with 520 byte sectors, I can use off-the-shelf IBM DHCS (up
to 9GB) or Seagate (18GB to 36GB) drives in the unit.

I too have a failed SP (a Phoenix) and have been looking for a replacement.
Actually I would like to replace both SPs with units which are non-SGI so
I can use any drive.

Another update: apparently the current EMC Navisphere software has support
for the Clariions Cxx00 line, but doesn't seem to recognize the Challenge
RAID...

David