jms20@po.CWRU.Edu (John M. Sully) (06/04/91)
Last night I was feeling adventurous, and tried to format a bunch of disks that 6.0.7 said were bad. They formatted (much to my surprise.). During formatting, however, the disks were verified twice (the format dialog said Re-Varifying format). Is this some new feature that allows 7.0 to accept disks that have small problems? Should I be cautious about using disks when this occurs? Thanks for your help. John -- | John M. Sully | "Why do I get the idea that | | jms20@po.cwru.edu | someday I'll be describing | | Case Western Reserve University | this to a psychologist?" | | Cleveland, Ohio | --Lisa Simpson |
andyp@treehouse.UUCP (Andy Peterman) (06/05/91)
In article <1991Jun4.164800.16394@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> jms20@po.CWRU.Edu (John M. Sully) writes: > >Last night I was feeling adventurous, and tried to format a bunch of >disks that 6.0.7 said were bad. They formatted (much to my surprise.). >During formatting, however, the disks were verified twice (the format >dialog said Re-Varifying format). Is this some new feature that allows >7.0 to accept disks that have small problems? Should I be cautious >about using disks when this occurs? Thanks for your help. This is indeed a new feature in 7.0. If the verify finds one or two bad tracks at the end of the disk, it will flag the bad sectors as used and give you a useable, although somewhat smaller, disk. I guess the second verify is to check that everything is really OK. I've got at least 20 bad disks (out of a stack of about 70) that I plan on reformatting. I seem to have been losing about 1 out of every 4 disks. I've heard that the problem is that the software forces the drive head to the last track before you eject it, which sometimes causes that track to get ruined. This is supposed to be fixed in newer (??) system software where the head is positioned in the middle before ejecting. Hmmm.... -- Andy Peterman | Everything you know treehouse!andyp@gvgpsa.gvg.tek.com | is wrong! (916) 273-4569 | FST
long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Rich Long) (06/05/91)
In article <1991Jun4.164800.16394@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>, jms20@po.CWRU.Edu (John M. Sully) writes... >disks that 6.0.7 said were bad. They formatted (much to my surprise.). >During formatting, however, the disks were verified twice (the format I believe that systems previous to 7.0 would not allow a disk to be used if any sectors were bad. 7.0 locks out bad sectors (new feature!). Richard C. Long | long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com | Selfware: If you like --------------- | ...!decwrl!mcntsh.enet.dec.com!long | this program, send A First Edition | long%mcntsh.dec@decwrl.enet.dec.com | yourself five bucks!
keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) (06/06/91)
In article <1991Jun4.164800.16394@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> jms20@po.CWRU.Edu (John M. Sully) writes: > >Last night I was feeling adventurous, and tried to format a bunch of >disks that 6.0.7 said were bad. They formatted (much to my surprise.). >During formatting, however, the disks were verified twice (the format >dialog said Re-Varifying format). Is this some new feature that allows >7.0 to accept disks that have small problems? Should I be cautious >about using disks when this occurs? Thanks for your help. This was already answered by someone else on this net. However, I wanted to point out other resources available for questions like this. Specifically, Technote #287: "Buddy can you spare a block" deals with the issue of formatting bad disks. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keith Rollin --- Apple Computer, Inc. INTERNET: keith@apple.com UUCP: {decwrl, hoptoad, nsc, sun, amdahl}!apple!keith "But where the senses fail us, reason must step in." - Galileo