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From: terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.)
Subject: Re: diskdefect crashes
Nntp-Posting-Host: spcvxa.spc.edu
References: <4tjphr$b6n@jupiter.dnai.com>
Sender: news@spcuna.spc.edu (Network News)
Organization: St. Peter's College, US
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 15:07:06 GMT
Message-ID: <1996Jul30.110706.1@spcvxb.spc.edu>
Lines: 35
In article <4tjphr$b6n@jupiter.dnai.com>, jacke@hghed.com (Jack Ellis) writes:
> I seem to have some bad sectors on my disk, and am trying to fix them
> using diskdefect. However, whenever I run it, it dumps core!
>
> Anyone have an idea of what could be the problem?? For your info,
> below is an exerpt from my /var/log/messages file showing the errors I
> am getting prompting me to run diskdefect.
I'm of the opinion that any disk error that can't be cured by rewriting
the sector is grounds for warranty replacement of the drive - it's either
lost part of its servo data or it is going to get worse later. I've never
had a disk manufacturer refuse to replace a drive under warranty for soft
errors. Of course, this assumes the drive is under a manufacturer's war-
ranty.
> P.S. BSDI support is no help whatsoever!
What did they say? I've noticed a trend where they're now asking for
complete problem report forms filled out as per the manual, but that's
probably due to increased workload. OTOH, if you have a support contract
and they ignored you, then we should hear about it. If they just told
you "your drive is broken - get it repaired/replaced" that sounds fine
to me.
diskdefect is mostly a leftover from a time when drives did *not* come
from the factory without any defects - almost all IDE drives internally
hide their factory defects.
It could be that diskdefect is getting upset because it can't write to
the disk defect map (a defect in the defect map, boot area, or DOS par-
tition table isn't handleable).
Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing
terry@spcvxa.spc.edu St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA
+1 201 915 9381 (voice) +1 201 435-3662 (FAX)