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- SCSIInfo V1.1 by Bob Easterday
-
- SCSIInfo is a Control Panel document which provides a comprehensive table
- of information about each SCSI device attatched to your computer.
- SCSIInfo works consistantly with System Software versions 6.03 - 7.0.0.
- In addition to the standard Reset, Scan, and Mount functions, SCSI info provides
- technical information which can be used to diagnose various problems you may be
- having with your hard disks. Pay particular attention to the descriptions below of
- each data field.
-
- Vendor: Who made it?
- This is the vendor of the mechanism itself. In the case of external drives, this name
- will usually be different than the vendor who sold the main unit.
-
- Model: What did they call it?
- In the case of Hard Disks, the model name will generaaly reflect the unformatted
- capacity of the drive. For example the P80S is Quantum's model name for one of thier
- 80 Megabyte hard disks.
-
- Version: What is the firmware version?
- This is the version of the software in ROM on the drive in question. The firmware
- contains code which among other things, determines which portions of the SCSI
- protocol are implemented for this drive.
-
- SCSI ID: This is the SCSI address of the device this information pertains to.
-
- Sectors: Total number of sectors for the entire device.
-
- Capacity: How many Kbytes of information this device can store.
-
- Cylinders: How many data cylinders does this device contain?
-
- Free Space: Total unused space on this device in Kbytes.
- Note that in some cases value indicates only the free space of the 1st partition.
-
- Initialized: When this device was last initialized.
-
- Backed up: When this device was last backed up.
- This value will say "Never!!" if you have not backed up since the disk was
- initialized. Also note that some backup programs do not properly set the
- backup flag in the Volume Information Block.
- In this case, SCSIInfo will report "Never!!".
-
- Interleave: The interleave under which this device was formatted.
- Some buffered drives will report an interleave ratio of 0:1. These drives
- use an adaptive interleave which optimizes throughput for the particular
- computer to which it is attached.
-
- Bytes/Sector: This will generally read 512 under the Macintosh operating system.
-
- Heads: The number of read/write heads this device uses.
-
- Boot Version: Apple's version of the Boot Blocks currently installed on this disk.
- '0' indicates this to be a non-bootable disk. This information is
- irrespective of any System software which may be installed. If you
- have a disk which contains a System Folder, but has a Boot Version of
- '0', you will still be unable to boot from that disk. Conversly a disk
- with valid Boot Blocks will not boot if there is no System Folder
- installed.
- As you may have guessed, the boot version IS specific to
- the System version. Thus you should ALWAYS use Apple's Installer
- to install System software. NEVER copy a System Folder. The Installer
- automatically writes the appropriate Boot Blocks at install time.
-
- Factory Defects: This is a list of how many bad blocks were locked out during the
- Original factory format. These bad blocks are due to imperfections
- in the surface of the disk and data will never be written to them.
-
- User Defects: This is the number of bad blocks encountered on subsequent formats.
- These defects are largely due to the drive geometry
- changing as the drive ages. As with Factory Defects, these blocks
- have been locked out from use, and data will not be written to them.
-
- System Version: This is the System version under which you are currently operating.
- This field does NOT report a Sytem Version which may be installed on the drive
- under test.
-
- Drive Icon: The SCSIInfo Icon will change to the drive's icon when a device is
- selected.
-
- Drive Name: Right after the Icon, The name of the 1st volume at the current
- selected SCSI address will be displayed.
-
-
- In addition to the standard table of information, there is a message area located
- just above the Scan button. Errors will be reported here as well as other useful bits
- of information as appropriate.
-
- The Buttons:
-
- 0 - 6 represent the SCSI addresses. The buttons which are highlighted indicate
- at which addresses a device was located. Pressing on a located device will display
- the table of information as described above.
-
- Scan will search the SCSI bus for devices and set buttons 0-6 as appropriated.
- This is useful if a device has come online after you have run SCSIInfo.
-
- Mount will place the icon on the Desktop for all volumes found on the ALL devices.
- Note, that this process will bypass many password protection schemes,
- used by some partitioning software. So Use With Care!
-
- Reset will reset the SCSI bus, in case there is an arbitration problem.
-
- The fine-print:
- SCSIInfo represents many hours of hard work. It is being released as shareware.
- If you find it useful, please send what you feel is appropriate to the utility it
- provides.
-
- Bob Easterday
- 522 Loumena Ln.
- San Jose, Ca.
- 95111