marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us (Marco S Hyman) (08/20/90)
Since adding a second SCSI disk to my ISA box, a second Seagate ST-296N, I've been getting occasional error message like: *** DEVICE ERROR: Uncorrectable data error in sector *** *** Controller 0 (Adaptec AHA-1540 SCSI Host Adapter), DISK Drive 1, Absolute Sector # 40205 *** *** DEVICE ERROR: Uncorrectable data error in sector *** *** Controller 0 (Adaptec AHA-1540 SCSI Host Adapter), DISK Drive 0, Absolute Sector # 15201 *** The interesting part is that the errors are on BOTH disks (drive 0 never gave me any problems before adding drive 1) and that the disks format and surface scan without error. I expect this is really a controller problem. Has anyone on the net seen anything like this before? (The data read is usually GOOD! However, I have had a couple of kernel panics due to this error). Note: I am *not* running sync or parity and my AH-1542A is old enough to have J8, the LA enable jumper. No Panic Thanks for any comments. // marc -- // marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us // {ames,decwrl,sun}!pacbell!dumbcat!marc
carroll@m.cs.uiuc.edu (08/21/90)
/* Written 11:34 pm Aug 19, 1990 by marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us in m.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.unix.i386 */ /* ---------- "Disk error question" ---------- */ Since adding a second SCSI disk to my ISA box, a second Seagate ST-296N, I've been getting occasional error message like: *** DEVICE ERROR: Uncorrectable data error in sector *** *** Controller 0 (Adaptec AHA-1540 SCSI Host Adapter), DISK Drive 1, Absolute Sector # 40205 *** *** DEVICE ERROR: Uncorrectable data error in sector *** *** Controller 0 (Adaptec AHA-1540 SCSI Host Adapter), DISK Drive 0, Absolute Sector # 15201 *** /* End of text from m.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.unix.i386 */ I've had something very similar to this happen to me. ISC 2.0.2, Adaptec 1542 SCSI, Maxtor drive. I would get the error in different sectors as time went on (i.e., sector X for a while, then sector Y for a while, etc.). Sometimes the sector would not be any sector on the disk, e.g. a sector number in the millions (for a 330 meg disk)! I eventually tracked the original sector number down a particular file. I deleted the file, rebooted, and it's been fine every since. As with you, surface scans/etc. indicated no problems.
larry@nstar.uucp (Larry Snyder) (08/26/90)
marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us (Marco S Hyman) writes: >*** DEVICE ERROR: Uncorrectable data error in sector *** >*** Controller 0 (Adaptec AHA-1540 SCSI Host Adapter), DISK Drive 1, Absolute Sector # 40205 *** >*** DEVICE ERROR: Uncorrectable data error in sector *** >*** Controller 0 (Adaptec AHA-1540 SCSI Host Adapter), DISK Drive 0, Absolute Sector # 15201 *** Is it possible that your hard drive doesn't default to enabling the automatic hard disk bad sector relocation? I had a Miniscibe 9380S which defaulted with this off which produced errors - as Miniscribe in all their wisdom considered this to be enabled in the driver - not in the drives firmware.. -- Larry Snyder, Northern Star Communications, Notre Dame, IN USA uucp: iuvax!ndmath!nstar!larry -or- larry@nstar Public Access Unix Site (219) 289-0282 (5 lines/PEP/HST/Hayes-V)
marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us (Marco S Hyman) (08/29/90)
Thanks to Larry and all the others who offered help via email. I do not know the cause of the problem but am suspicious of heat -- it's hot in this room and adding the second drive didn't help matters there. To solve the problem I booted from a DOS diskette, went into debug, and then jumped to the format/scan section of the Adaptec BIOS (dc00:6 if I recall correctly). Doing a scan/verify found recoverable errors that the BIOS re-mapped to a different sector. I continued the scans until no errors were found three scans in a row. This took about 10 scans on one disk and 20 on the other. Most scans found 2-5 bad sectors. The only hard part is finding what files were destroyed in the remapping so I could restore them from backups. I'll probably be finding them for a few more weeks. Thanks again for everyone's help. // marc -- // marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us // {ames,decwrl,sun}!pacbell!dumbcat!marc