bt455s10@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Carl "Art" McIntosh) (12/03/89)
I posted an article last week regarding use of the mkpart(1M) command.
I ended up supposedly resolving my problem by reformatting my drive.
The drive had been running fine for approx. 2 months when I encountered
the following message from the ISC 2.02 driver:
*** DEVICE ERROR: Uncorrectable data error in sector ***
*** Controller 0 (Primary AT Hard Disk), Disk 0 Absolute Sector # nnnnnn
Reformatting the drive seemed to fix the problem until today, when it reared
it's ugly head again. The sectors seem to be at different locations when
the problem occurrs. The drive is a MiniScribe 9380E, and ESDI drive. The
controller is a DTC. When I reformat the drive, i.e. low level with debug
g=c800:5, the controller does not find the errors the ISC driver found, I
repeatedly low leveled the drive approx 10 times in a row and exactly 29
errors exist. I reformatted with sector sparing enabled, using 60 sector
translation as the ISC surface scan flips out when I use native 36 sector mode.
I also used the ISC format routine during install, which Eric of ISC says
should not be used with ESDI drives as the OS looses the ability to talk to
the controller if it is used. However the drive seemed to be fine, everything
installed ok and was running up til today. I'd appreciate it if ANYONE with
experience in this area could share their knowlege. It's a pain in the %^%&
to keep having to reinstall everything whenever this sucker occurs, even tho
I do have a tape drive 1/2 :^).
--
ARPA: manapua!pilikia!root@trout.nosc.mil
UUCP: {uunet,ucbvax,dcdwest}!ucsd!nosc!manapua!pilikia!rootsteve@cdp.UUCP (12/06/89)
> *** DEVICE ERROR: Uncorrectable data error in sector *** > *** Controller 0 (Primary AT Hard Disk), Disk 0 Absolute Sector # nnnnnn I have seen this one both on ESDI and SCSI disks when there definitely is no hard sector error. Rebooting usually solves the problem. Steve Fram Community Data Processing {hplabs, pyramid, ...}!cdp!steve
cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) (12/08/89)
In article <654400002@cdp>, steve@cdp.UUCP writes: > > > *** DEVICE ERROR: Uncorrectable data error in sector *** > > *** Controller 0 (Primary AT Hard Disk), Disk 0 Absolute Sector # nnnnnn > > I have seen this one both on ESDI and SCSI disks when there > definitely is no hard sector error. Rebooting usually solves > the problem. I used to get this kind of error every time I touched my old Bell Tech 386. It seems that the disk controller was especially suseptable to static electricity. This wasn't too bad until I up graded to release 3.2 when the hd device driver began automatically re-mapping bad sectors and my root fs would get totaly trashed. luckily I upgraded to 386/ix and a new machine. -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Conor P. Cahill uunet!virtech!cpcahil 703-430-9247 ! | Virtual Technologies Inc., P. O. Box 876, Sterling, VA 22170 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish) (12/09/89)
In article <1989Dec7.190957.5768@virtech.uucp> cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) writes: > >I used to get this kind of error every time I touched my old Bell Tech 386. It >seems that the disk controller was especially suseptable to static electricity. I have the same problem with our Bell Tech machine using the tape drive. On days when static electricity becomes noticable, I have to ground myself before inserting or removing tapes, or the entire disk/tape system locks up. I thought that maybe they had just forgot to connect a grounding strap or something, but the tape chassis appears to be grounded correctly. Apparently the metallic parts accessable from the front are NOT grounded, allowing the charge to get into the electronics. So far there has been no damage when I sometimes forget to ground myself first, but it is an annoying problem. -Fred -- # Fred Fish, 1835 E. Belmont Drive, Tempe, AZ 85284, USA # 1-602-491-0048 asuvax!{nud,mcdphx}!estinc!fnf
lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) (12/15/89)
fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish) writes: > cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) writes: >> >> I used to get this kind of error every time I touched my old Bell Tech 386. >> It seems that the disk controller was especially suseptable to static [...] > I have the same problem with our Bell Tech machine using the tape drive. On > days when static electricity becomes noticable, I have to ground myself > before> inserting or removing tapes, or the entire disk/tape system locks up. If you are using the cypher (cipher?) tape drive with the plastic slide, you may need a thin strip of metal along the bottom of the slide in order to ground it. The problem is in the moving plastic part. You used to be able to get the part from the distributer -- e.g. CCI or Bull. Some other drives with metal bits in the front can be improved with a small piece of wire or a 47K resistor going between the metal bit and the case, but do not do this if the metal bit goes within an inch or so of the tape head, or you might cause other problems... Lee