zimm@portia.Stanford.EDU (Dylan Yolles) (11/20/89)
If you know anything about hard drives, I'm in desperate need of your help! One of my hard drive partitions is turning into spaghetti. By that I mean that when I attempt to write a lot of stuff to it (maybe 2 megs) the new files are severely corrupted, the directory looks funny, the computer crashes, and so on. I believe that the drive can't write to certain sectors (I recently noticed a <write fail> message from the ICD utilities). What should I do? a) Should I reformat the partition and hope there are no real hardware problems with the drive itself? As far as I can tell, the ICD utilities won't allow one to reformat a single partition: how does one accomplish this? (I DON'T WANT TO REFORMAT THE WHOLE DRIVE!!) b) Is there any way of determining which sectors are permanently corrupted, so that when I reformat the partition I can tell the drive to ignore them? I need to solve this problem a.s.a.p., as one might imagine. Thanks - Dylan zimm%portia@forsythe.stanford.edu
wallace@oldtmr.dec.com (Ray Wallace) (11/21/89)
In article <6832@portia.Stanford.EDU>, zimm@portia.Stanford.EDU (Dylan Yolles) writes... >files are severely corrupted, the directory looks funny, the computer >crashes, and so on. I believe that the drive can't write to certain Sounds a lot like 40 folder bug symptoms. If you are not running FOLDRXXX.PRG (renamed to something like FOLDR100.PRG) the I STRONGLY urge you to get the program and put it in your /auto folder. If your ICD driver is V4.x then in place of FOLDRXXX you can configure the ICD folder limit to be 100 or so (depending on how many folders you have/will have on your HD). --- Ray Wallace (INTERNET,UUCP) wallace@oldtmr.enet.dec.com (UUCP) ...!decwrl!oldtmr.enet!wallace (INTERNET) wallace%oldtmr.enet@decwrl.dec.com ---
mark@rpp386.cactus.org (Mark Lehmann) (11/21/89)
In article <6832@portia.Stanford.EDU> zimm%portia@forsythe.Stanford.EDU (Dylan Yolles) writes: >One of my hard drive partitions is turning into spaghetti. By that I mean >that when I attempt to write a lot of stuff to it (maybe 2 megs) the new >files are severely corrupted, the directory looks funny, the computer >crashes, and so on. I believe that the drive can't write to certain >sectors (I recently noticed a <write fail> message from the ICD utilities). >What should I do? > >a) Should I reformat the partition and hope there are no real hardware >problems with the drive itself? As far as I can tell, the ICD utilities >won't allow one to reformat a single partition: how does one accomplish >this? (I DON'T WANT TO REFORMAT THE WHOLE DRIVE!!) I don't want to sound uncaring about you problem, but it looks like you have encoutered the nasty "40" folder limit that TOS incorporates. This will mess up you drives extremely well. You can try to backup your good partitions to floppy disk, but there is not much you can do about the corrupted files. I encountered this twice. Even my backups were messed up, and when I restored the files to the freashly formated drive, I re-created my problems. My suggestion is to backup as much as you can onto floppy disks, and then reformt the drive. Then make sure to get the FOLDRxxx.PRG program from a BBS or other source. Atari wrote it and it is available for no-charge. Replace the "xxx" with a number between 100 and 999. I use a value of 150. Hope this helps. Mark Lehmann -- +------------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | Mark Lehmann | | | mark@rpp386.cactus.org | | | {bigtex|texbell}!rpp386!mark | |
gl8f@astsun7.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) (11/21/89)
In article <17336@rpp386.cactus.org> mark@rpp386.UUCP (Mark Lehmann) writes: >My suggestion is to backup as much as you can onto floppy disks, and then >reformt the drive. Then make sure to get the FOLDRxxx.PRG program from >a BBS or other source. Atari wrote it and it is available for no-charge. >Replace the "xxx" with a number between 100 and 999. I use a value of 150. If you're using TOS 1.2 or TOS 1.0, replace XXX with a number bigger than the number of folders you have in all partitions in your drives, plus the number of drives, plus a few for good measure. I use 250 or so. It is *critical* to get XXX that large with this version of the ROMS, or you can trigger the problem. disclaimer: that's what they tell me, I'm just a dumb hydro-jock. ------ Greg Lindahl gl8f@virginia.edu Astrophysicists for Choice.
rona@hpdml93.HP.COM (Ron Abramson) (11/22/89)
Dylan Yolles >One of my hard drive partitions is turning into spaghetti. By that I mean >that when I attempt to write a lot of stuff to it (maybe 2 megs) the new >files are severely corrupted, the directory looks funny, the computer >crashes, and so on. I believe that the drive can't write to certain >sectors (I recently noticed a <write fail> message from the ICD utilities). >What should I do? Step 1: Back up as much of your data as you can WHILE YOU STILL CAN. Step 2: Relax in the pleasant knowledge that your data is safe. After steps 1 and 2, I would ZERO the partition. This feature is avail- able in the ICD utilities. Zeroing the partition will erase the direc- tory and may solve your problem. What caused the problem in the first place, is anybody's guess at this point. Maybe it is the 40 folder limit, but it could be hardware too. Good Luck! Ron Abramson #include disclamer
rjk752@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu (11/22/89)
There isn't any way to format a single partition. However, the new ICD utilities will allow you to check for bad sectors in a single partition. Set the retries high, so that it checks them several times. This will definitely catch any bad sectors, and should write them into a table. The hard drive won't try to access the sectors in the bad- sector list. The last response sounds very likely though. I set my ICD utils for 200 extra folders, since I've got *lots* of them. Watch out especially when you do BACKUPS of your hard drive. You can end up with garbage backups that have some folders, but other folders are gone (couldn't be opened successfully, I guess). When your drive goes, the hidden flaws in your backups will become *very* obvious. I know from experience. The moral: Allocate some variable space in your brain to store the current number of open folders (a rough estimate will do). When you approach the limit, reboot. You may have to save a partition at a time even with over 100 folder limit. I still do with 200, to be safe.
dillenbu@uicbert.eecs.uic.edu (11/22/89)
/* Written 3:54 pm Nov 19, 1989 by zimm@portia.Stanford.EDU in uicbert.eecs.uic.edu:comp.sys.atari.st */ /* ---------- "Hard Drive Woes: HELP!" ---------- */ > a) Should I reformat the partition and hope there are no real hardware > problems with the drive itself? As far as I can tell, the ICD utilities > won't allow one to reformat a single partition: how does one accomplish > this? (I DON'T WANT TO REFORMAT THE WHOLE DRIVE!!) You can Zero the directories of a single hard drive partition with a program called HDUTIL.PRG available from the ICD customer support BBS. Also, a program called DLII comes in handy for repairing corrupted disks (floppy or hard drive). DLII is also available at the ICD BBS. > b) Is there any way of determining which sectors are permanently corrupted, > so that when I reformat the partition I can tell the drive to ignore them? When you format the hard drive with the ICD utilities, it will tell you which sectors are bad and will automatically skip them. The next time you format your drive, you can tell the format program where you discovered bad sectors the last time you formatted it. When you purchased your HD, a list of bad sectors should have been included with it. -= John Dillenburg =- dillenbu@uicbert.eecs.uic.edu