[comp.sys.amiga] hard disk won't validate; disk doctor snafued; device won't prep

karl@sugar.UUCP (Karl Lehenbauer) (04/13/88)

(Hopefully I'll have solved this problem before this message gets far
enough (and replies back) to help, but just in case...)  

My hard disk died.  It's a Seagate ST-251 with an A2090 board in an 
Amiga 2000.  The system guru'ed while running the assembler after printing 
a couple of "I got lost" message - it was probably this funky code I was 
trying to compile.  Anyway, I reboot and and the disk validator runs as 
expected but fails to validate the disk.  Consult, consult, copy off 
everything, try diskdoctor.  Diskdoctor runs, finds some "keys" that it 
can't reach, tells me about a lot of files that aren't good anymore and 
exits.  The disk validator runs and refuses to validate the disk.  I run 
diskdoctor again.  It finds a new problem, wastes a bunch of files and 
exits.  Disk validator runs again - the hard drive won't validate.

OK, I know when I'm licked, so I decided to re-prep and reformat the
drive.  It'll also allow me to get rid of the @W#%$^&* three second head
park that seemed like such a good idea last December.  Prep worked but
the format hung.  I tried various things, like power cycle rebooting
and reprepping.  Now it won't even prep anymore.  It says "Device not
PREPped" - a most unedifying message.

Am I doing something wrong?

Is this a hardware problem?
-- 
"Tonight.  Tonight.  To ni i ight.  Oh, woah."  -Phil Collins
..!{bellcore!tness1,uunet!nuchat}!sugar!karl, Unix BBS (713) 438-5018