Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!att!dptg!mtunb!jcm
From: jcm@mtunb.ATT.COM (was-John McMillan)
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: 3B1 Hard Disk Woes (Plea for HELP!)
Summary: Recalibration Failure is lethal ?
Keywords: disk failure,diagnostics
Message-ID: <1580@mtunb.ATT.COM>
Date: 2 Aug 89 19:12:56 GMT
References: <8569@cbnews.ATT.COM> <1989Jul26.174524.21833@eci386.uucp> <850@flatline.UUCP>
Reply-To: jcm@mtunb.UUCP (John McMillan)
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T ISL Middletown NJ USA
Lines: 18


It is my impression, from 'wasting' several days in the bowels of
the S4 diagnostics code, that NOTHING can be done from software
that will recover a disk which fails re-calibration.  (And those
bowels were NOT a pretty site!-)

Those days were spent trying to redeem the lost soul of an MX-2190
-- this was not a mere intellectual exercise, it was a personal crisis!-)
-- as only 140 MB of lost sources can be....

If anyone can correct my impression that a failed re-calibration
prevents ALL useful WDx020 operations, please advise.  Until then
I will presume that the controller CANNOT write to a disk for which
the base-reference -- the recalibration point -- cannot be found:

	Ya can't FORMAT track 0 if ya can't FIND track 0.

john mcmillan -- att!mtunb!jcm -- ...speaking for self, only...