Jeff Garzik wrote (ao): > Ah, I see this made it to LKML :) I'm not the OP. The Maxtor notice is a few months old already. > Dax Kelson wrote: > >Short version > >============== > >Nvidia Nforce4 chipset with Maxtor SATA II drives with certain firmware > >revisions cause data corruption and system instability when under > >moderate to heavy I/O load. > > I'm a bit suspicious of this. > > Looking at the link, there are three problem areas and two problem blame > targets implied: > > Data corruption -> blame nvidia driver > NCQ -> blame nvidia driver > Detection -> blame maxtor firmware > > The first one likely applies to the Windows driver not Linux's sata_nv, > and thus irrelevant here. The second one OBVIOUSLY applies only to > Windows, since sata_nv (and libata itself) don't yet enable NCQ. The > third one could potentially apply to Linux. Lastly, your mention of > "nforce fake raid" almost certainly indicates Windows or proprietary > drivers. > > Therefore, I ask: > * are you reporting a only drive detection problem? > * why are you reporting unrelated Windows problems to a Linux list? > * if you are indeed reporting a problem on Linux, where is the kernel > and driver version info, as requested in REPORTING-BUGS? > * and can you provide such info *and reproduce the problems* without > proprietary drivers loaded? > > Your email is just a list of highly general symptoms. Your link seems > to indicate two NV driver bugs on Windows, and a Maxtor firmware upgrade > for undescribed detection problems. > > My recommended action for users is: > 1) Avoid Windows. > 2) Don't panic. Last december I requested new firmware for my drives. Maxtor called me and asked if I did have any problems. I did not, but just wanted to fix the problem before I would notice any. The Maxtor guy then told me that harddisk firmware upgrades are best not to be done if not needed, and asked what operating system I run (answer: Linux). He said that the problems only exists with Windows, and that Linux should be ok. In fact, I have yet to see a problem with my sata Maxtor disks connected to the onboard nForce4 controller. This supports Jeff Garziks story. I do notice that the nForce4 controller most of the times fails to detect some of the drives (seems random) on a reboot. A powerdown and fresh boot lets the controller detect all disks again. Sander -- Humilis IT Services and Solutions http://www.humilis.net - : send the line "unsubscribe linux-ide" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
