[comp.sys.att] ATT System 3B2/400 Hard Disk reformatting

m937290@.usna.navy.mil (Midn. Norman R. Solis (M937290) <m937290@usna.navy.mil>) (11/20/90)

I royally screwed up a 3B2/400 and I'm trying to reinstall the system
from the original core system diskettes.  The only problem is that the
primary hard drive has a few bad blocks on it that prevent the installation
from completeing.  I was wondering if there is a utility that I can use
to do a low-level format of the system hard drives and start from scratch.

Please bear in mind that I am definately NOT a Unix wizard.  Any and all
suggestions are appreciated.

-Richard Solis

rad@genco.bungi.com (Bob Daniel) (11/22/90)

In article <119@prism.UUCP> m937290@.usna.navy.mil (Midn. Norman R. Solis (M937290) <m937290@usna.navy.mil>) writes:
>I royally screwed up a 3B2/400 and I'm trying to reinstall the system
>from the original core system diskettes.  The only problem is that the
>primary hard drive has a few bad blocks on it that prevent the installation
>from completeing.  I was wondering if there is a utility that I can use
>to do a low-level format of the system hard drives and start from scratch.

One thing you can try is going into 'idtools' in firmware mode.  Then try
the 'formhard' command.  Don't alter the defect table, if it asks, enter
'q', it can be filled after a successful format.

You will need '3B2 Computer Maintenance Utilities' disk in order to run
'idtools' from floppy.