Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!virtech!cpcahil From: cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Subject: Re: Automatic bad sector mapping (was: Re: Mapping abs sector ...) Message-ID: <1991Jun09.133624.2806@virtech.uucp> Date: 9 Jun 91 13:36:24 GMT References: <767@dumbcat.sf.ca.us> Organization: Virtual Technologies Inc. Lines: 25 john@jwt.UUCP (John Temples) writes: >Which of the 386 UNIXes do automatic bad sector mapping? I know that >ESIX does, and ISC 2.0.2 does not. What about the newer ISCs, AT&T, >SCO, and the various SVR4 implementations? This is a *really* nice >feature, in my opinion. It is not a nice feature at all. At one time we were running Bell Technologies 3.1 or so and it had automatic bad sector mapping. This caused great headaches when a directory magically appeared with bogus data in the middle, or an executable all of a sudden has a block of zeros in the middle of it. Our hardware at the time (also Bell Tech) had a problem with static electricity that would cause a series of sectors to appear bad whenever the machine was touched. This torched our system several times and the only way to fix it was a full restore (trying to patch around it is almost impossible when /usr/bin or /bin get blown away). Yes, it sould be easier to map blocks, but IMHO automatic mapping is not the answer. -- Conor P. Cahill (703)430-9247 Virtual Technologies, Inc. uunet!virtech!cpcahil 46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160 Sterling, VA 22170