Service manual

Appendix A Test Equipment
FileStore Service Manual 107
FServFmt
Select ‗F‘ from FServMenu. This invokes FServFmt, a general formatting program for
formatting Acorn hard disc drives used in FileStore units (Rodime RO650 and RO3000
series). The following menu is displayed:
Format disc – current drive is drive
Q Quit F Format disc (DESTROY ALL DATA)
M Change format parameters A Add defects at logical block
C Change the drive parameters P Print disc controller page
U Initialise maintenance pages T Type the defect list
V Verify area of disc W Write ADFS structure
3 Certify R Change error recovery
E Enquiry 4 Sector error read/ write tests
I Drive information D Change drive
H Help S Self test
? Error Log
Using the options from the above menu, you can carry out all the operations necessary to
preparing a hard disc for formatting.
The disc controller pages may be examined (‗Print disc controller page‘ ‗F‘), and the contents
of user pages A, B may be written (‗Initialise maintenance pages‘ ‗U‘): for Acorn drives,
these must contain the eight characters ‗(C) Acorn‘. Note that near page B is ‗write-once:‘
after it has been written, another attempt is an error. The error recovery parameters of the
drive may be changed (‗Change error recovery‘, ‗R‘). See the Rodime User Manuals for full
details.
The numbers of heads and cylinders can be specified, if they can‘t be read from the drive.
(‗Change drive parameters ‗C‘).
The Rodime self-test facility may be invoked (‗Self test‘, ‗S‘). Again, see the Rodime
manual.
The defect list may be examined (‗Type the defect list‘, ‗T‘) and changed (‗Add defects at
logical block‘, ‗A‘).
There is a testing facility (‗Sector read/ write tests‘, ‗4‘) (with error log, ‗?‘) similar to the
soak test provided in FServSoak.
The main purpose of inn program is to format the disc (‗F‘). After formatting, it writes an
ADFS partition, and will then optionally verify or certify the disc automatically, under the
control of ‗Change format parameters (‗M‘). The interleave factor may be changed: the
default is 8, which is believed to be optimal over a range of usable types in FileStores.
Also, the ADFS partition may be written without first formatting the disk (‗W‘). The ADFS
partition is on cylinder 0 and it contains the disc parameters in the form that the ADFS
understands. This allows the disc to be initialised by FServInit (it is not suitable for use as a
FileStore disc at this point).
Verification (checking by reading each sector, ‗V‘) and certification (checking by reading
and writing each sector, ‗3‘) are also available as separate options.