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From: kens@hplsla.HP.COM (Ken Snyder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: HD with *no* hard error info
Message-ID: <5190089@hplsla.HP.COM>
Date: 2 May 90 16:46:46 GMT
References: <1990Apr28.121801.12446@uncecs.edu>
Organization: HP Lake Stevens, WA
Lines: 23

>   The question is, how can I check for hard errors? Chkdsk only does
> logical errors or hard errors that have been logically noted by DOS,
> I believe. Does Norton's NDD or PCTools' COMPRESS check for hard 
> errors.
>   Or is this merely a lucky HD with no hard errors. Thanks in advance
> for your replies.
> 
    I've had 2 Miniscribe 3180E's with NO bad sectors/tracks so I don't think
it's that uncommon.  In fact, when I got the third drive with 23 bad sectors
on it I was concerned I got a defective disc.  If you have the Norton Utilities
and use the SD utility the bad sectors will show up in the map marked "B".  If
there are none, there won't be any "B"s.

    Also, Norton's disc statistics tells you the number of sectors/bytes marked
as bad.

    When you do a low level format you will see error messages march across
the screen when a bad sector is found.  DOS's FORMAT command will also say
something like "Trying to recover sector xx" when doing a high level format.

    Sounds like you have a good disc,

Ken