Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!texbell!flatline!erict
From: erict@flatline.UUCP (J. Eric Townsend)
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: 3B1 Hard Disk Woes (Plea for HELP!)
Keywords: disk failure,diagnostics
Message-ID: <850@flatline.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jul 89 18:25:50 GMT
References: <8569@cbnews.ATT.COM> <1989Jul26.174524.21833@eci386.uucp>
Reply-To: erict@flatline.UUCP (J. Eric Townsend)
Distribution: na
Organization: Fusion-Chem-Info-Med-Data-Bio-Net-Tech-Quik, Inc. (Ltd.)
Lines: 34

In article <1989Jul26.174524.21833@eci386.uucp> clewis@eci386.UUCP (Chris Lewis) writes:
>Somebody else wrote:
>>		WINCHESTER DISK TEST
>>
>>		Hard disk restore failed
>>			**ERROR**
>>		Test:		Hard disk test (drive 0)
>>		Subtest:	Park Disk Heads
>>		Error:		WINCHESTER: Can't Recal; Response = 4
>>			Enter y[Y] to Abort, Return to continue

According to an AT&T tech who came out and replaced the HD in
my 3b1 (while it was under warranty), this is something that could
be fixed from floppy-unix, if AT&T had bothered to ship a program
that could do the super-low level format needed to test the hard drive.
This is where I start to lose understanding of the subject, so
I only *think* I'm correct.

There are two levels of formatting:  The normal level, what "we"
use, merely erases the disk, and sets up the base for the file system.
There is a lower level format that actually writes the 0 block (or
wherever the "what am I" information for the drive is stored).  This
"what am I" information is what the 3b1 uses to format the hard drive.
Currently, there is no way to do a "you are a X" format on a drive.
(I've done this on IBM PClones, however. :-(

Anyway, maybe somebody with a tad more HD knowledge can xlate the
above into technical-talk, and correct it where necessary.

-- 
J. Eric Townsend       "[Leslie Stahl was] a pussy compared to [Dan] Rather."
uunet!sugar!flatline!erict     -- George Herbert Walker Bush
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