Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!magnesium.club.cc.cmu.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!sample.eng.ohio-state.edu!purdue!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!howland.reston.ans.net!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!mimsy!afterlife!blackbird.afit.af.mil!dsacg3.dsac.dla.mil!dlscg3.dlsc.dla.mil!dsacng1.dsac.dla.mil!nbb1424
From: nbb1424@dsacng1.dsac.dla.mil (Steve Hamilton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: STRANGE DISK BEHAVIOUR
Keywords: disk
Message-ID: <4581@dsacng1.dsac.dla.mil>
Date: 21 Apr 93 15:48:16 GMT
Organization: Defense Logistics Service Center, Battle Creek, MI
Lines: 21

I have a 286 with a Western Digital WD-93044A hard drive. This drive is 
782 cylinders with 4 read write heads PHYSICALLY, but LOGICALLY it is
977 cylinders with 5 read write heads (??!!).  In the CMOS setting
I am instructed to set it to type 17 (IBM 977 cyl. 5 read/write heads),

THE PROBLEM:  I was sent Western Digitals ISPFMT low level program from
the manufacturer, and was instructed to run it on the hard drive with
the CMOS setting set to type 17.  This worked "o.k." and I verified the
disk using the same program.  I then reloaded DOS which did a high
level format, again no errors, no bad sectors, etc.

BUT.... when I run Norton Speedisk 6.01 (or any other disk optimizer)
with the verify option set ON, I get ERROR verifying sector NNNN,
where NNNN can be any number (not the same all the time).

ANY IDEAS AS TO WHAT IS GOING ON HERE WOULD BE APPRECIATED!

Thank you!

Steve Hamilton
nbb1424@dsacng1.dla.mil
