Date: Sat, 31 Jan 1998 11:39:01 -0800 (PST) From: patl@phoenix.volant.org To: scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Jazzm Message-ID: <ML-3.3.886275541.9171.patl@asimov> In-Reply-To: <E0xxTBg-0003rD-00@opel.kom.auc.dk>
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> >>>>> "Damon" == Damon Permezel <dap@damon.com> writes: > > Damon> Is anyone else having reliability problems with Jazz? I had to > Damon> sent the first 3 back before I got one which would not eat the > Damon> disk and refuse to eject it. > > Damon> Each time you send the drive back, including the disc, you lose > Damon> the disc, donating its contents to whoever gets to liberate it. Since you've powered off with the disk still inside, you can liberate the cartridge yourself. Simply straighten out a paper clip and stick the end into the tiny hole that is about 3mm beneath the cartridge slot. On the internal drives, it is just to the left of the LED. On the external drives, it is about 2.5cm from the left edge of the slot. (The hole is in the same place, the LED moved.) You will feel some resistance. Push gently until the cartridge pops out. NEVER DO THIS WITH THE POWER ON !!! NOTE that power-down with the cartridge installed is NOT recommended. See the docs that came with the drive and/or the iomega Web page for various dire warnings. You haven't said anything about the circumstances under which this occurs. I am using a Jaz as the primary (boot) disk for one of my machines so that I can easily use multiple OSes without worrying about compatible boot blocks, or what some brain-dead (read M$) install might trash. I have noticed that when FreeBSD is shutdown it does not release the mount lock on the boot drive; so the disk cannot be ejected. The work-around is to reset the machine so that the BIOS will do a SCSI reset, then eject the drive before the boot sequence brings FreeBSD back up. This may not be your problem; but it does illustrate that a correctly functioning Jaz drive may refuse to eject the cartridge. > Damon> My current drive works ok, but now I am having some of my media > Damon> start to die. > > Damon> When inserted, the drive makes horrible sounds for a while, then > Damon> subsides, but the media is unreadable. It rejects mode sense. All Jaz drives reject mode sense. Ignore it, it's harmless. The horrible sounds are probably something to worry about. > Damon> When I use the Adaptec 2940 low level formatter, it usually fails > Damon> with a media error. Once (different Adaptec adapter, different > Damon> firmware) it formatted all the way thru, and verified, but once I > Damon> moved it back, it died. > > Damon> This was "used once or twice" media. My other media still works, > Damon> so far.... It is possible that this cartridge was damaged by a previous drive. One of the hazards of rigid removable media is that once you've had a head crash, both the drive and the cartridge involved are likely to damage any other unit that they are used with. That unit then spreads the damage, etc. (I could tell horror stories about when I was working for a startup that was trying to use the first SyQuest drives when they were still in Beta. And even into production. In fact, it was over ten years before I tried SyQuest drives again. It was a mistake - the 270 gave me just as much trouble as the old 5M drives had. The Jazz, on the other hand, has given me no trouble at all; and I now own four of them.) > I have dedicated 2940 adapters for externally > Damon> connected narrow devices, and I never connect more than one > Damon> device at a time, on a 3' cable, and yes, I understand the need > Damon> for correct termination. > > Damon> My general impression, though, is that this is not anything I > Damon> want to consider for archive, or backup, or even casual use. > > Damon> Are others having similar experiences? > > Yep, I have a Jaz drive at the office, and one at home. 100% of the > media I have ever bought have wound up being defective :-( The problem > is that I don't know which drive is trashing the discs. It's a pretty easy thing to check - for each drive you allocate one new cartridge, and never use it on any other drive. Wait for one to fail. (Note that I said easy, not cheap.) The problem is, of course, that you are left with a pile of possibly defective cartridges; each of which could damage any drive into which it is inserted. (Depending upon the nature of the damage.) Then that drive could damage any cartridge inserted into it, etc. This problem is common to -all- rigid removable media drives. The bottom line is - once you have good reason to belive that a particular cartridge is bad, you should immediately stop using it. Once you have reason to believe that a particular drive is bad, you should stop using it. (Except, possibly, to try to read the bad cartridges and copy any retrievable data to a good drive/cartridge.) Once you have reason to belive that one of your drives is bad, you should stop using your live data or archival cartridges in any suspect drive; and take vigorous measures to determine which drive is the culpret. All of which gets pretty expensive for those of us working on a personal or small corporate budget... (Which is why I am so happy with my trouble-free Jaz drives.) > I hate to think about the things on which I could have spent my money if > I hadn't bought the drive (and controller)... Just what I thought about my SyQuest 270s. -Pat
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