Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!rutgers!att!cbnewsl!hojo
From: hojo@cbnewsl.att.com (HC Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Adaptec 4000A Bad Sector List Query
Summary: Adaptec stores the tables on the Hard Disk
Message-ID: <1990Oct8.201844.11196@cbnewsl.att.com>
Date: 8 Oct 90 20:18:44 GMT
References: <1363@tnosoes.izf.tno.nl> <1990Sep28.195230.9880@cbnewsl.att.com> <186.270cc984@brb.isnet.inmos.co.uk>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 25

In article <186.270cc984@brb.isnet.inmos.co.uk>, gary@brb.isnet.inmos.co.uk writes:
> 
> Does the Adaptec 4000A have some non-volatile memory in which the bad 
> sector list is stored?
> -or-
> Does the Adaptec have some RAM in which the list is stored, which is stored
> on the disk and automatically read by the Adaptec on power-on?
> -or- 
> Does the Adaptec have some RAM ... , which has to be initialised by the
> driver software (booted from sector 0?), which knows where the bad sector
> list is stored on the disk?
> 
Bad sectors and the Adaptec.
Bad sectors are mapped in zones on the hard disk. This is why the lights 
blink so funny when you turn on an Adaptec based controler.

The whole effect of a bad sector list is to shrink the total size of the 
disk.  It just seems to shrink a bit more for its internal tables.
The Adpatec has effectively two format commands; short and long.
Short has new bad sectors, long allows passing them as part of the command.

Howard Johnson
ATT BELL LABS
att!lzsc!hcj
hcj@lzsc.att.com