slimick@unix.cis.pitt.edu (John C Slimick) (09/30/90)
I am having immense problems adding a second hard drive to a 3b2400 system. The 3b2 currently has 4 MB memory, WREN II (72 MB), and SVR3.2. The second hard drive is also a WREN II (72 MB). Symptoms: After formatting the HD with the ATT tools package, a two drive system is built using the "add second drive" option in disk 1 of essential utilities. All goes well for about 9 days. Then bad CRC records appear. I take system to single user state ("init s") and repair ("/etc/hdefix -a"). First repair usually works. 24 to 48 hours later other bad blocks appear. Repeat of single user and hdefix. This time we run out of backup blocks to remap, hdefix throws in the towel, and we reboot. However, nothing in the first 20 blocks on drive 1 can be found--sometimes track zero itself can't be found. Now fsck seems caught in a loop, and I power down by pulling the plug (the switch doesn't work at this point). I laboriously rebuild the system, but with little hope. If I reformat drive 1 (the new one), the format program finds nothing to complain about. The drive is under warranty and has gone back to Imprimis once. Any hints? could hdefix have become pathological? I have not had a single bad block on the original WREN II since we got the machine 1.75 years ago. One complication: the vendor in Columbus who sold us the second WREN is out of business, at least six months. If it were power supply, why don't the failures happen earlier? And why just on one drive? If it is the ATT controller, why does it fail on just the one drive? email appreciated slimick@unix.cis.pitt.edu john slimick university of pittsburgh at bradford bradford pa (814)362-7543