Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:75910 comp.sys.amiga.tech:17517 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!jesup From: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: HD Errors Message-ID: <17158@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 7 Jan 91 03:48:32 GMT References: <1991Jan5.235810.25940@nas.nasa.gov> Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 43 In article <1991Jan5.235810.25940@nas.nasa.gov> ranma@noc.arc.nasa.gov (Robert Michael Gutierrez) writes: >Well, then write a good interface to an Amy version of fsck. Odd that in the >Messy-DOS world, there's a TON of software to help fix trashed FS's (like >Norton, PC Tools, etc), and hundreds of thousands of these are sold to >the public at large. I would imagine that most of these purchasers are >not hardware or developer types, and rely on using the menus to guide and >warn them on what happens. Wasn't the Amy OS built on 'user interface'??? Amusing comment, given other people's contentions that MSDOG filesystems are rock-solid. >I can NOT use my Syquest on FFS without seeing eventual errors crop up. ALL >my Syquest carts are OFS formatted. With 40 megs worth of anim files to >deal with, I can't afford to do it any other way! And these wern't simple >valadation errors...these were bad read/write errors that always got me stuck >on a bad block. These sound like real hardware errors, not FS screwups. If the bad block is in a file, you could delete the file (if the drive is still writable or you're good with a sector editor), but if you continue to use it you'll hit the bad block again soon. You need to reformat, or map out the bad block. If the error is in a fileheader or directory block, you may be screwed and have to use disksalv/doctor to get some data back. I would think syquests should be more reliable than that. What's the MTBF? Are these old drives/carts? Have you talked to Syquest? The only way to get R/W errors is a media/hardware problem, or turning off the power (or resetting) in the middle of a write. Is there much dust or smoke (or any other contaminant) where they're kept? If you have a 2091 (and perhaps other controllers), use "Verify Data on Drive" every so often. This causes the drive to make sure all the sectors are ok, and report any bad ones, including recovered errors, so you can map them out before the go bad (hopefully). Could you spell out your hardware config, including rev number of the Syquest roms if you know it, or when it was obtained? -- Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering. {uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com BIX: rjesup The compiler runs Like a swift-flowing river I wait in silence. (From "The Zen of Programming") ;-)