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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!utcsri!torn!maccs!mcshub!csx.cciw.ca!u009 From: u009@csx.cciw.ca (G. Stewart Beal) Subject: [386BSD] bad144 help needed: re block numbers Organization: Canada Centre for Inland Waters Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1992 23:43:09 GMT Message-ID: <1992Sep23.234309.17094@csx.cciw.ca> Summary: docs on bad144 args needed Lines: 24 I finally figured out that the problems I was having bringing 386BSD to life were due to bad blocks in the partition where the system was put. The symptoms were an inability to boot the system from the hard disk... no diagnostics, nothing. I finally twigged to the fact that mapping out the bad sectors during low level formatting (MFM Drive) and letting DOS map them during it's formatting didn't carry over to the 386BSD partition when I changed the ID Byte to A5! I allocated a bigger DOS partition (enough to cover the bad area) then allocated the 386BSD partition. BINGO a working system. Now... how do I use bad144? The miniscule bit in the installation notes assumes someone finds a bad block and reports it's number to you. I know the exact locations of the bad sectors (Head, Cylinder and Offset) but how do I translate this into the block number for bad144. I can calculate the absolute sector number knowong the drive geometry, but is the block number absolute, relative to the start of the 386BSD partition, rel to the block after the partition control block, start at 0, start at 1, what? I'd appreciate some direction please. And Thanks. The drive is an ST251 (6 hd, 820 cyl, 17 spt MFM). Regards, Stu Beal, VE3MWM, u009@cs.cciw.ca, National Water Research Institute. We had survived another nuclear winter, and the lawn had just trapped and eaten it's first robin.