jones@uv4.eglin.af.mil (Calvin Jones, III) (03/27/90)
"Ralph A. Foy" <raf@prc.unisys.com> writes: > Further complication: > I got around it by just doing a "quick" format, but the idea of a bad > sector sitting out there has me a little worried... Again, any way to > handle this without re-prepping the drive? S T O P !!!!! Do not pass go, do not collect 200 more bytes of PD software! You are sitting on a time bomb. Your hard drive has an error (unless you are lucky enough to have had a power glitch or something) and the error *WILL* show up at some later point. Back up everything and do the low-level format (prep). Build a mountlist that sets up the drive as one big partition and format it using the AmigaDos format command with the quick option. Then use one of the PD programs that can read the entire disk surface to verify that all bad sectors have been mapped out and the entire disk appears good to AmigaDos. In the event that the verification program shows that one or more sectors/tracks/cylinders are bad, try another low-level format and try to mark them properly. Then verify again. If you CAN'T get the verify program to come up with a clean disk, you can "manually" map out the bad sector, but you will lose a whole cylinder when you do it. You do this by partitioning the drive so that the bad sector(s) lie between your partitions. For example, if you cannot map out errors on tracks 322, 323, and 402, you might partition: DH0: 0-321 DH1: 324-401 DH2: 403-nnn (nnn is highest cyl). Another error that is often made is that users will find that a file on their drive has developed a read/write error than can't be recovered. When this happens, do *NOT* delete that file! Create a directory on the same partition called "badfiles" and rename the file to that directory so the OS will not try to use this section of the disk again. If you get very many of these, it's time to do the low-level format again! --- Cal // Cal Jones - Internet: <Jones@UV4.Eglin.AF.Mil> \X/ BBS: 904-243-6219 1200-9600HST 340Meg, all Amiga Single Tasking? *JUST SAY NO!!!*