Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!eye!paul
From: paul@eye.com (Paul B. Booth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: bad m/o disks?
Message-ID: <1991Jan07.150748.415@eye.com>
Date: 7 Jan 91 15:07:48 GMT
Reply-To: paul@eye.com (Paul B. Booth)
Organization: 3D/Eye Inc., Ithaca, NY
Lines: 22

OK, I'm baffled.  Maybe someone out there's seen this before:
I'm using an hp 6300.650a optical drive to do nightly backups for a group
of about 20 hp900's (300's/800's).  The o/m drive is mounted on a 350 running
hpux 7.05 (straight, no patches).  Starting a week ago, I come in to find this
node halted due to a bus error panic that occured while the backup was writing
to the o/m.
I bring everything back up, but the o/m disk won't fsck because it has an
unreadable block.  OK, I grab what I can off this disk and mediainit it
(should spare bad blocks, right?).  Put a new filesystem on it, and... makes
no difference.  The node panics again when it tries to write to the o/m, and
when it comes back up, the o/m again has an unreadable block.

Now I guess I can replace the o/m disk, but the thought of chucking a $250 disk
because of a bad block is upsetting.  Shouldn't the scsi driver be able to
handle this kind of thing more gracefully?  Is there a better way (than
mediainit) to find and spare bad blocks on an o/m disk?  Is there a scsi driver
patch that I need?  Thanks in advance for any wisdom y'all can lend.
--
Paul B. Booth  (paul@eye.com) (...!hplabs!hpfcla!eye!paul)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3D/EYE, Inc., 2359 N. Triphammer Rd., Ithaca, NY  14850    voice: (607)257-1381
                                                             fax: (607)257-7335