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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!yarrina.connect.com.au!cmutual.com.au!spp From: spp@cmutual.com.au (Siegfried Pietralla) Subject: problems using 850Mb disk - 16 or 32 heads? Message-ID: <D8st6x.DEG@cmutual.com.au> Sender: spp@cmutual.com.au (Siegfried Pietralla) Organization: Colonial Mutual Group Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 23:56:56 GMT Lines: 33 Hi there, I'm trying to install FreeBSD onto my pc . The hard disk is a Western Digital Caviar 2850 (850Mb) whose label says it has 1654 cylinders 16 heads 63 sectors. However the setup on the pc defines it as having 827 heads and 32 cylinders! When I enter 'fdisk' in the install disk for FreeBSD I allocate the bsd partition but when I go to set the geometry for the disk (to 827/32) it comes back with "wd0: can't handle 32 heads from partition table (controller value 16 restored)" then when I go on to 'proceed' with the installation, the first step 'newfs /dev/rwd0a' hangs with the recurring message "wd0a: wdstart: timeout waiting to give command writing fsbn 344063 (wd0 bn 1600031; cn 793 tn 21 sn 20)wd0: status 0 error 0<no_dam>" I've allocated bsd the last 200Mb of the disk - the first 600+ all still seems to be accessible by dos. I've even replaced the 200Mb bsd pn by a 100Mb followed by a 100Mb dos pn which i managed to format. What gives??? I guess I could always try moving the bsd pn to before the 1024 cyl 16 head boundary and letting bsd's 'fdisk' label this as a 1654/16 disk but will it all still work - esp. since dos is currently working fine. Any ideas/comments/thoughts & solutions greatly appreciated. Thanx -- Siegfried Pietralla email: spietralla@cmutual.com.au Database Administrator phone: +61-3-96076517 Colonial Mutual Group IT fax : +61-3-92831090