SCSI MO Drive Expert Tool (xstm Online Help)

The Expert Tool allows you to view various information logs and perform certain tests on a SCSI MO drive.

• Introduction
• Functions and Tests
• What do you if it doesn't work

Introduction

This tool provides two main functions for evaluating an MO (Magneto Optical) drive. First, it provides a way to view various information logs such as read/write errors, error logs, defect lists, Mode Sense information, and drive status. Second, it provides a set of tests to run to test the functionality and/or performance of the drive. These tests include surface scan, reading, writing, and a Mode Select Utility to change drive configurations.

Please refer to the Functions and Tests section for a detailed description of all the information logs and tests available with this tool.

If you experience problems while viewing the logs or running any of the tests, consult the What do you if it doesn't work help topic for recommended actions.

Functions and Tests

This section provides an overview and a detailed descriptions of all the information logs and tests available with this tool.

• Exiting the Expert Tool
• Viewing Read Write Error Logs
• Viewing Error Event Logs
• Clearing the Logs
• Viewing General Status Information
• Viewing Cartridge Defect List
• Viewing Mode Sense Information
• Viewing Dip Switch Settings
• Viewing Supported Cartridge Types
• Performing Surface Scan of Drive
• Performing Load-Unload Test of Drive
• Performing Data Integrity Test of Drive
• Changing Drive Configuration
• Prevent/Allow Media Removal
• Performing a Read
• Performing a Write
• Erasing Sectors
• Performing a Read Long
• Performing a Write Long
• SCSI Script Utility
• Display Format

Exiting the Expert Tool

To exit the Drive Expert tool, perform the following steps:

1. Click "File" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Exit" button that appears. The tool will ask if you want to exit. Clicking on "OK" will exit the tool; clicking on "Cancel" will return you back to the expert tool menu.

Viewing Read Write Error Logs

This allows you to view the Read Write Error logs which lists the number of corrected and uncorrected sectors for reads, writes, verifies, erases, and blank checks.

To view this information, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Logs" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Read Write Errors" button what will appear below the menu bar. The program will retrieve the information and display a window containing the information. Converting the raw file to text may take a few seconds.
3. When finished viewing the information, click "Done" on the bottom of the window and the tool will return to the main manu.

Viewing Error Event Logs

This allows you to view the internal Error Event Logs that are generated by the drive. Each error event contains the following information:

1. Type: the type of error that occurred; read, write, verify, erase, or blank check.
2. Occurance Count: the number of times this error occurred.
3. Timestamp: the time when the error occured since the drive was powered on.
4. The Logical and Physical block addresses where the error occurred.
5. The Error Code describing the error.

To view these error logs, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Logs" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Error Event Log" button what will appear below the menu bar. The program will retrieve the information and display a window containing the information. Converting the raw file to text may take a few seconds.
3. When finished viewing the information, click "Done" on the bottom of the window and the tool will return to the main manu.

Clearing the Logs

This utility allows you to clear the hard and soft error logs.

CAUTION: Once the logs have been cleared, the information is permanently lost.

To clear the logs, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Logs" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Clear Logs" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to select which log pages you want to clear.
3. Click the desired pages to clear in the dialog box. When finished, click "OK" to clear the logs. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to clear the logs.
4. Clicking on "Defaults" will load the default settings into the dialog box table which de-selects all logs pages from being cleared.
5. When the test has finished, the program will display the results indicating if the utility was successful or not.

Viewing General Status Information

This allows you to view general status information (such as vendor and product ID, revision number, and cartridge information if cartridge is present) about the drive. This information is updated from the expert tool and logged into the information log.

To update this log, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Info" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "General Information" button that appears. The program will retrieve the information and display a new window containing the information. Converting the raw file to text may take a few seconds.
3. When finished viewing the information, click "Done" on the bottom of the window and the tool will return to the main manu.

Viewing Cartridge Defect List

This allows you to view the defect list of the cartridge present in the drive. If no cartridge is present, the program will put up a dialog box stating that the defect list cannot be obtained because there is no cartridge in the drive.

To view this defect list, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Info" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Defect List" button that appears. The program will retrieve the information and display a new window containing the information. Converting the raw file to text may take a few seconds.
3. When finished viewing the information, click "Done" on the bottom of the window and the tool will return to the main manu.

Viewing Mode Sense Information

This allows you to view selected drive configuration parameters using the Mode Sense command. Both the default and current settings are displayed. Since this program supports two families of drives, some parameters will be displayed with "n/a" in the value column. These parameters don't apply to the drive under test but do apply to another drive type. These values can be changed with the Changing Drive Configuration command.

To view this information, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Info" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Mode Sense Info" button that appears. The program will retrieve the information and display a new window containing the information. Converting the raw file to text may take a few seconds.
3. When finished viewing the information, click "Done" on the bottom of the window and the tool will return to the main manu.

Viewing Dip Switch Settings

This allows you to view the current DIP switch settings for Sony C1113 or C1114 drives. This button will be disabled (grayed out) if the drive is not a C1113 or C1114 drive. These switch settings can only be viewed; they cannot be changed in software.

To view this information, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Info" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Dip Switch Settings" button that appears. The program will retrieve the information and display a new window containing the information. Converting the raw file to text may take a few seconds.
3. When finished viewing the information, click "Done" on the bottom of the window and the tool will return to the main manu.

Viewing Supported Cartridge Types

This allows you to view the types of cartridges supported by this drive and the level of support (e.g., read-only, read-write, etc.).

To view this information, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Info" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Supported Cartridges" button that appears. The program will retrieve the information and display a new window containing the information. Converting the raw file to text may take a few seconds.
3. When finished viewing the information, click "Done" on the bottom of the window and the tool will return to the main manu.

Performing Surface Scan of Drive

This utility allows you to test an entire cartridge surface for unreadable sectors and other defects. The program searches the entire disk for erased blocks and maps them. All areas not reported as blank are verified using the verify command to see if they are readable. If a sector fails the verify command, the same sector is re-read using a regular read command (which is less sensitive to defects). A final report is generated that shows all erased areas, all areas that failed the verify or read commands, and all areas that verified with no errors.

If no cartridge is present, the program will put up a dialog box stating that the surface scan test cannot be run because there is no cartridge in the drive.

CAUTION: This command will take a few minutes to complete. The program will prompt you before executing this command to make sure that is what you really want to do.

To run the surface scan test, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Tests" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Surface Scan" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to select between scanning the entire surface of the cartridge or part of it.
3. Click the desired changes in the dialog box. When finished entering all the changes to the dialog box, click "OK" to run the test. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to run the test.
4. If "OK" is selected from the dialog box, the tool will then ask if you really want to run this command. Clicking on "OK" will run the command and return you back to the expert tool menu when finished; clicking on "Cancel" will just return you back to the expert tool menu.
5. When finished, the program will display the results of the surface scan.

Performing Load-Unload Test of Drive

This utility allows you to perform a Load-Unload test. Basically, this test spins the cartridge down and then spins it back up, checking to make sure the drive comes ready again.

If no cartridge is present, the program will put up a dialog box stating that the load-unload test cannot be run because there is no cartridge in the drive.

To run the load-unload test, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Tests" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Load Unload" button that appears. If there is no cartridge in the drive, it will bring up a dialog box stating there is no cartridge in the drive; click "OK" to return to the main menu of the expert tool.
3. If there is a cartridge in the drive, the program will run the load-unload test and display the results when it is finished.

Performing Data Integrity Test of Drive

This utility allows you to perform a Data Integrity test on the cartridge and drive. There are two types of tests; a read-only test and a read-write test. Both tests perform a spin-down and spin-up to see if the drive comes ready.

The read-only test turns the read caching off and performs 10, 25, or 100 reads of random block sizes at random locations and then re-reads the same locations over again, comparing the data read back between the two reads. The read cache is turned back on and the same test is repeated.

The write-only test turns read and write caching off and performs 10, 25, or 100 writes of random block sizes at random locations. Then, it goes back and reads data from the same locations, comparing data to see if it matches what was written. Then, read and write caching are turned on and the test performs another 10, 25, or 100 writes of random block sizes at random locations, but this time, the data is read back immediatelly after each write and data is compared to see if it matches what was written.

If no cartridge is present, the program will put up a dialog box stating that the data integrity test cannot be run because there is no cartridge in the drive.

CAUTION: If you perform a read/write test on Re-Writable cartridge, you will destroy data already written on the disk. Don't run this test on cartridges that contain information you don't want to lose.

To run the data integrity test, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Tests" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Data Integrity" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to select the read-only or read-write test, the the number of loops, whether or not to exit on error, and how much information to log in the activity log.
3. Click the desired changes in the dialog box. When finished entering all the changes to the dialog box, click "OK" to run the test. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to run the test.
4. When finished, the program will display the results of the surface scan.

Changing Drive Configuration

This utility allows you to change certain drive configuration parameters using the Mode Select Command. Only those parameters listed on the dialog box can be changed. Other parameters are either unavailable with this code release or may not exist for this drive platform.

To change drive configuration parameters, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Utility" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Mode Select" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to modify certain drive configuration parameters.
3. Click the desired changes in the dialog box. When finished entering all the changes to the dialog box, click "OK" to run the test. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to run the test.
4. Clicking on "Defaults" will load the default settings into the dialog box table. These are the actual default settings of the drive, not just the current settings that were retrieved. This allows you to put the drive back to its default configuration.
5. When the test has finished, the program will display the results indicating if the utility was successful or not.

Prevent/Allow Media Removal

This utility allows you to send the appropiate SCSI commands to prevent and/or allow cartridge removal from the drive. Some applications tell the drive to disable cartridge removal in order to prevent interference from the operator. However, it is sometimes necessary to remove the cartridge while debugging a problem and this can only be done by overriding the drive settings that prevent cartridge removal.

To prevent or allow cartridge removal, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Utility" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Prevent Allow Media" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to select between preventing and allowing cartridge removal.
3. Click the desired information in the dialog box. When finished entering all the changes to the dialog box, click "OK" to run the test. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to run the test.
4. When the test has finished, the program will display the results indicating if the utility was successful or not.

Performing a Read

This utility allows you to read individual sectors from the disk and either display the data on the screen or save it in a file for further use. This can be done to inspect the contents of a particular sector or range of sectors on the disk or just exercise reading data.

If no cartridge is present, the program will put up a dialog box stating that the read utility cannot be run because there is no cartridge in the drive.

To do a read, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Utility" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Read Data" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to specify the start sector, number of sectors, and whether to show the file on screen or save it to a file. It will also bring up checkboxes that allow you to disable the read ahead cache, force the drive to read directly from disk, or use physical block addressing.
3. Click the desired changes in the dialog box. When finished entering all the changes to the dialog box, click "OK" to run the test. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to run the test.
4. When the test has finished, the program will display the results indicating if the utility was successful or not. If the program was instructed to display the results on the screen, it will do so.

Performing a Write

This utility allows you to write individual sectors to the disk either from a file that was previously created using the Performing a Read command or from a list of predefined write data patterns.

If no cartridge is present, the program will put up a dialog box stating that the write utility cannot be run because there is no cartridge in the drive.

CAUTION: This command will destroy data written on the disk. The program will prompt you before executing this command to make sure that you really want to over- write existing data on the cartridge.

To do a write, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Utility" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Write Data" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to specify the start sector, number of sectors, and a choice of whether to enter a file name with write data or choose a predefined data pattern. It will also bring up checkboxes that allow you to enable verifies after a write, disable storing data in cache, force the drive to write directly to the disk, disable the erase step before a write, or use physical block addressing.
3. Click the desired changes in the dialog box. When finished entering all the changes to the dialog box, click "OK" to run the test. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to run the test.
4. Before starting the write, the tool will ask if you really want to run this command. Clicking on "OK" will run the command and return you back to the expert tool menu when finished; clicking on "Cancel" will just return you back to the expert tool menu.
5. When the test has finished, the program will display the results indicating if the utility was successful or not.

Erasing Sectors

This utility allows you to erase all sectors or a range of sectors on a given cartridge surface.

If no cartridge is present, the program will put up a dialog box stating that the erase utility cannot be run because there is no cartridge in the drive.

CAUTION: This command will destroy data written on the disk. The program will prompt you before executing this command to make sure that you really want to erase existing data on the cartridge.

To do an erase, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Utility" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Erase Sectors" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to specify a range of sectors to erase.
3. Click the desired changes in the dialog box. When finished entering all the changes to the dialog box, click "OK" to run the test. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to run the test.
4. Before starting the erase, the tool will ask if you really want to run this command. Clicking on "OK" will run the command and return you back to the expert tool menu when finished; clicking on "Cancel" will just return you back to the expert tool menu.
5. When the test has finished, the program will display the results indicating if the utility was successful or not.

Performing a Read Long

This utility allows you to perform a Read Long on individual sectors from the disk and either display the data on the screen or save it in a file for further use. This function reads both the stored data and the ECC/CRC fields associated with each sector. This can be done to inspect the contents of a particular sector or range of sectors on the disk. This file can also be used to perform a Write Long later on.

If no cartridge is present, the program will put up a dialog box stating that the this utility cannot be run because there is no cartridge in the drive.

To do a read long, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Utility" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Read Long" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to specify the start sector, number of sectors, and whether to show the file on screen or save it to a file. It will also bring up a checkbox that allows you to use physical block addressing.
3. Click the desired changes in the dialog box. When finished entering all the changes to the dialog box, click "OK" to run the test. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to run the test.
4. When the test has finished, the program will display the results indicating if the utility was successful or not. If the program was instructed to display the results on the screen, it will do so.

Performing a Write Long

This utility allows you to write individual sectors to the disk from a file that was previously created using the Performing a Read command. The file must contain both data and the correct ECC/CRC pattern associated with each sector to be written (and it must be the same ECC/CRC generated by the drive).

If no cartridge is present, the program will put up a dialog box stating that the this utility cannot be run because there is no cartridge in the drive.

CAUTION: This command will destroy data written on the disk. The program will prompt you before executing this command to make sure that you really want to over- write existing data on the cartridge. Furthermore, if the file contains incorrect or corrupted ECC/CRC data, the written sector(s) will appear as a defect on the cartridge.

To do a write long, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Utility" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Write Long" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to specify the start sector, number of sectors, and a file name with write data. It will also bring up a checkbox that allows you to use physical block addressing.
3. Click the desired changes in the dialog box. When finished entering all the changes to the dialog box, click "OK" to run the test. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to run the test.
4. Before starting the write, the tool will ask if you really want to run this command. Clicking on "OK" will run the command and return you back to the expert tool menu when finished; clicking on "Cancel" will just return you back to the expert tool menu.
5. When the test has finished, the program will display the results indicating if the utility was successful or not.

SCSI Script Utility

This utility allows the user to execute a series of SCSI commands contained in a script file. These SCSI script files can be used to perform additional tests and/or utilities not contained in this tool. This help menu does not yet provide a description of how to write script files; for now, the will be furnished by HP as needed.

To run the SCSI Script Utility, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Utility" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "SCSI Script" button that appears. The program will bring up a dialog box allowing you to select a script file from a set of files in a particular directory. Normally, script files have an ".scr" extension. You can also change the directory and the extension filter to search for script files in this same dialog box.
3. Click the desired script file in the dialog box. When finished, click "OK" to run the test. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to run the test.
4. When the test has finished, the program will display the results indicating if the utility was successful or not.

Display Format

This tool feature allows you to select what format you want information displayed for each of the functions for this tool. There are two formats available:

1. Hexadecimal: this format will display the CDBs of the SCSI commands executed and the raw hex data sent or retrieved from the target. This applies to both information viewing functions and test utilities.
2. Interpreted: this format displays information in an interpreted fashion; comments are used to describe the information, numerical data is converted to full decimal value, and data is generally laid out in a readable format. This format only applies to information viewing functions.

The hexadecimal format is useful for examining the data that is sent back and forth across the SCSI channel since the interpreted format throws a lot of the data away while parsing it. It also provides a means to check the software interpretation used by the interpreted format.

To select which format to use, perform the following steps:

1. Click "Options" on the menu bar.
2. Click the "Display Format" button that appears below the menu bar.
3. Click one of the first three option buttons that appear below the "Display Format" button.
4. The fourth button (Hex Dump Size) is used to change the raw data buffer size used in the Hexadecimal display mode. Clicking on it will bring up a dialog box that allows the user to change the limit on how many bytes of buffer data is saved and displayed for the Hexadecimal display.

What do you do if it doesn't work

If the tool is experiencing problems it should explain the problems in messages that are displayed in dialog boxes and in the window of the tool. Extensive messages are also logged into the Test Activity Log. Please make sure that you read these messages carefully - they are normally the best source of information about the problem and what to do about it.

Following are some general checkpoints when the tool doesn't work:

• Make sure the device is powered on.
• Make sure that all the SCSI cabling is correct (termination, no ID conflicts, correct bus adapter)
• Some autochangers have a switch that allows the selection of either the single-ended and the differential connector. Make sure the selector switch is in the correct position.
• Re-generate the map in the STM main window to reflect any changes in the I/O configuration: Select "System/Remap System" from the menu in the STM main window.
• If you are using the STM user interface on a machine different than the UUT, make sure the STM user interface is connected to the correct UUT.
• Make sure you have the latest version of the MO tools installed.
• Make sure you have chosen the right option settings for your system.

Glossary

Test Activity Log

This is a log file maintained by STM that contains messages about the progress and problems encountered by the tool as it executes. To view the log file select the "View Activity Log" menu item belonging to this device from the STM main window.

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