On Sat, 31 Oct 1998, Steve Revilak wrote:

   8<  Snip   >8

> >Disk parameters and geometry is reasonable enough to proceed
> >Partition read, SCSIID = 1
> >nsectors 159, ntracks 2, cylspares 0
> >optimization space
> >nsectors 159, ntracks 2, cylspares 0
> >Disk parameters and geometry is reasonable enough to proceed
> >formatting.....
> >Warning: 314 sector(s) in last cylinder unallocated
> >disk:   102400 sectors in 323 cylinders of 2 tracks, 159 sectors
> >    52.4MB in 21 cyl groups (16 c/g, 2.61MB/g, 640 i/g)
> >super-block backups (for fsck -b #) at:
> > 32, 5280, 10208, 15456, 20384, 25632, 30560, 35808, 40736,
> > 45984, 50912, 56160, 61088, 66336, 71264, 76512, 81440, 86688,
> > 91616, 96864, 101792,
> >formatting complete
> >Partition read, SCSIID = 1
> 
> 
> The thing catching my attention -- 'Warning: xxx sectors in last cylinder
> unallocated'.  Never had this one crop up before.

Not a problem.  Basically, the Unix ffs still believes in disks with
rather stringent geometries, ie a fixed number of sectors per track, a
fixed number tracks per cylinder.  The on-disk structures assume that
this is the case, even though modern SCSI disks have variable sectors
per track (depending on how far from the center of surface you are).

All the error message really means is that, because the total number of
blocks in the partition is not an exact multiple of the number of
sectors per cylinder, it is not going to be able to map that final,
partial "virtual" cylinder.  314 blocks is only 157KB, so don't worry
about it!

    8<   Snip   >9

> 1 mac, root, usr, and swap left 7 partitions in the disklabel.

Ayep.  On MacOS disks, there's also the partition table partition, and
the driver partition (maybe more than one of these, depending on the
formatting software you use. 

> So, suggestions?  How concerned should I be with the mkfs console messages?
> As an alternative, the vendor I bought the drive from threw i a copy of FWB
> personal edition.  I might give that a go.

That's what I've used in the past.

> Are there certain flags I should consider checking the setting of (ie--
> blind transfers, interleave, etc)...since FWB gives the option, and apple
> doesn't.

Don't mess with those!  :)

> I have to admit a little impatience -- ' I went with a 'regular' format as
> oppsed to a low level format...I'll try a full low level/zero data format
> as well.
> 
> I recall someone working around a similiar situation by editin ghte
> disklabel and removing one of the partitions by hand, but I can't find the
> post for the life of me....
> 
> I'll noddle a little more after work tonight.  Suggestions would be
> appreciated.   Oh, this in a Quadra 605 with 1.3.2...
> 

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