Zip disk geometry

Ignore these two names, and in particular do not attempt to remove them. Under IRIX 6. As a result, the disk can be in any format; it does not have to be formatted for DOS. The Iomega architecture for a read-only disk such as the "Iomega Tools" disk distributed with the Zip drive is entirely software-based.

There is no external tab or hole to mark a disk as read-only, and no hardware protection. The media daemon correctly mounts a read-only disk with permissions. However, as root you can write to a nominally read-only disk; and it is possible to format a read-only disk with fx , mkfs , or mkfp. Just ask me where my "Iomega Tools" disk has gone. Users of IRIX 5. SGI has not tested these products and cannot recommend either for or against them. The following packages of freeware may be of use in working with the Zip drive or with other OEM disks.

As with any freeware, it is entirely up to you to evaluate the utility of this software. As written it does not specifically support the Iomega Zip. A package of commands that makes it simpler to format, mount, and use Zip disks in EFS format not mac or dos formats is available from the home page of Tom Shield , shield aem.

Any external SCSI drive should be cabled using a short cable of high quality. There are significant differences in performance between cheap cables and expensive ones. The Zip drive, being slower, is less critical of cabling. It is regrettable that the Jaz drive with its higher data rate comes with a cable five feet long. SGI strongly recommends that you connect either drive with a cable at most inches in length.

The total length of your external SCSI cable chain should never exceed 2 meters and preferably will be shorter.

The Zip drive has a switch-selectable internal terminator. You can usually get an active terminator with a DB25 connector at low cost from most Macintosh-oriented discount catalogs. Typically the order-taking clerk will not know what you are talking about; but if you contact the technical support line for the discount house they will know.

In any case, take pains to set the Zip drive's terminator slide switch to the appropriate position when cabling the drive. It should be "on" only when the drive is last in the chain and there is no external terminator. Select whichever number does not conflict with another device on the same controller. The letter Z in a device name below stands for your chosen number, 5 or 6. The letter S stands for the SCSI controller number for the external chain, typically 0 on a workstation, but typically 1 on a server.

The Jaz drive can be set to any unit number. Set it to a number from 2 to 6 that does not conflict with another device. Whenever you suspect any type of hardware problem, examine the system log!

Any trouble report regarding Zip or Jaz drives is incomplete without:. With the workstation switched off, attach the drive. Make sure it powers up with, or before, the workstation. When the system boots, the block and special device names should be created automatically.

You may see a message "creating floppy devices" on the console. In IRIX 6. A key point is that the treatment a disk receives from its device driver is different depending on the device name that you open. The following "raw" character-interface names should be automatically created the first time you boot with a Zip attached, where S stands for the SCSI controller 0 or 1 and Z stands for the device unit number such as 4, 5 or You should not need to take any special administrative steps.

The drive should appear automatically as an icon on the desktop. Put a disk in the drive; the icon should change to reflect the presence of the disk, and its filesystem type. You can use the desktop root menu to eject the disk.

You can use the graphical Removable Media Manager to eject or format disks. If so, use the eject 1 command instead. However, I hear that at least one user has told Dave Olson that the following procedure does not work. I'm not aware of any open bug report, however. This is not recommended for normal use but it might be useful if you want to test a new release of IRIX before installing it permanently and the Jaz is your only external hard drive.

The following applies only to IRIX 6. For later releases see above. This function is used to appoint hard disk geometry such as sector size, heads, sector per track, cylinders, total sectors and boot record DBR of each partition. Please note that this feature configures parameters used in partition table. In some case, after saving partition table, disk parameters might be changed.

Thus, operating system may not be able to boot normally after changing hard disk geometry. Do not make any changes if you do not fully understand this function. Step 1. Right-click the disk you want to change geometry and choose " Appoint Disk Geometry " option. Step 2. Enter parameters on the following dialog box, and click " OK ".