[comp.sys.atari.st] Tos 1.4 Bugs

ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu (Ed Krimen) (05/11/91)

In article <1991May10.130926.28727@qut.edu.au> lunnon@qut.edu.au writes:
>Yet another bug in TOS 1.4
>
>
>	It has been brought to my attention that the new desktop formatter
>in TOS 1.4 does not mark bad blocks correctly according to the IBM media. 
>It seems that TOS gets the nybbles wrong. (you know that wierd 12 bit
>fat they have), anyone else have experience with this one. While I'm
>on the subject, most formatters I have don't cope well with bad sectors,
>does anyone know of one that does do bad sector mapping properly ???
>

The old TOS doesn't map the bad sectors either.  Actually, I heard that
it does recognize the bad sectors, but it doesn't actually 'save the
bad sector configuration' to disk; so, it knows they're there, but
doesn't permanently write them.  Anyway, I wonder if this is fixed in
TOS >1.4.

DC Format 3.02 does good bad sector mapping.

I asked Dan Wilga about adding a bad sector mapping feature to NeoDesk's
formatter, and he told me just to throw out the disk. :^)

-- 
   |||   Ed Krimen [ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu or al661@cleveland.freenet.edu]
   |||   Video Production Major, California State University, Chico
  / | \  SysOp, Fuji BBS: 916-894-1261

lunnon@qut.edu.au (05/11/91)

Yet another bug in TOS 1.4


	It has been brought to my attention that the new desktop formatter
in TOS 1.4 does not mark bad blocks correctly according to the IBM media. 
It seems that TOS gets the nybbles wrong. (you know that wierd 12 bit
fat they have), anyone else have experience with this one. While I'm
on the subject, most formatters I have don't cope well with bad sectors,
does anyone know of one that does do bad sector mapping properly ???


	BOB
	R.Lunnon@qut.edu.au

ytsuji@wucc.waseda.ac.jp (Y.Tsuji) (05/11/91)

===== bad sector on formatting ====
Some formatters particularly the ones for hard disks writes FATs with bad
sector locations. But new floppy disks are usually guaranteed to be all right
and if you couldn't format them correctly, why not return them to the dealer?
Or your drive mechanism may be dusty. Then why not take it to a service
centre? I think it is a bad practice to allow bad sectors to exist right from
the start.

But if there was a bad sector on your precious disk, then  mark the location
as bad using your favorite disk editor.

I would throw away the bad disk right away if that ever occurred. And if
the drive does not work well, I'll just install a new one. Travelling
and communication expenses are far greater.
Cheers.
ytsuji@cfi.waseda.ac.jp