[rescue] fx a large drive under IRIX 6.5

[Sheldon T. Hall]

Does IRIX 6.5 have a maximum disk drive size, have I gotten a bunch of bum
drives, or what?

I got a bunch of Fujitsu 18-gig drives, and I'm trying to fx them on my
Challenge.  I'm using "fx -x" so I can use the "auto" setup to test, label,
and partition the drives.  The first three drives return results like this:

...opening dksc(0,6,0)
...drive selftest...OK
fx: Warning:  invalid label from disk driver, ignored
Scsi drive type == FUJITSU MAA3182SCX      2411
...creating default bootinfo
...created default partitions, use /repartition menu to change
...creating default volume directory

----- please choose one (? for help, .. to quit this menu)-----
[exi]t             [d]ebug/           [l]abel/           [a]uto
[b]adblock/        [exe]rcise/        [r]epartition/
fx> a

----- create sgiinfo-----
...creating default sgiinfo
 * * * * * W A R N I N G * * * * *
about to destroy data on disk dksc(0,6,0)! ok? y
writing label info to dksc(0,6,0)
fx/auto: Error:  Invalid argument:  on write at block 2 for 1 block
retry #2
fx/auto: Error:  Invalid argument:  on write at block 2 for 1 block
retry #3
fx/auto: Error:  Invalid argument:  on write at block 2 for 1 block
retry #4
fx/auto: Error:  Invalid argument:  on write at block 2 for 1 block
fx/auto: Warning:  can't write sgilabel
----- exercise-----
sequential pass 1: scanning [0, 35728250] (35728250 blocks)
0%..........10%.fx/auto/complete: Error:  sector size not a multiple of 512
and block #4161792 too large for write system call
fx/auto/complete: Error:  read error in chunk starting at block 4161792,
        looking for failing block(s) sector by sector
fx/auto/complete: Error:  sector size not a multiple of 512 and block
#4161792 too large for write system call
...adding bad block 4161792
fx/auto/complete: Error:  sector size not a multiple of 512 and block
#4161792 too large for write system call
fx/auto/complete: Warning:  Failed to add bad block
writing label info to dksc(0,6,0)
fx/auto: Error:  Invalid argument:  on write at block 2 for 1 block
retry #2
fx/auto: Error:  Invalid argument:  on write at block 2 for 1 block
retry #3
fx/auto: Error:  Invalid argument:  on write at block 2 for 1 block
retry #4
fx/auto: Error:  Invalid argument:  on write at block 2 for 1 block
fx/auto: Warning:  can't write sgilabel
----- done-----

It's the same for all three drives, right down to the block number that
fails.  It's hard to believe that all three drives are bad.  They are SCA
drives, and I'm using adapters to connect them to the 68-pin sleds, but the
adapters are of two different brands, which would seem to eliminate that
variable.  The other drives in the machine, including the ones I added some
months back, work OK, on both controllers, so that would seem to let out the
machine itself as the problem. Three bad drives in a row seems unlikely,
too....

Is it IRIX, fx, or me?

I seek a clue.

Thanks.

-Shel