Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!fernwood!dumbcat!marc
From: marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us (Marco S Hyman)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Mapping abs sector numbers to files
Summary: automatic mapping is not performed
Message-ID: <1058@dumbcat.sf.ca.us>
Date: 15 Jun 91 18:40:36 GMT
References: <1991Jun10.134714.28189@virtech.uucp> <1055@dumbcat.sf.ca.us> <1991Jun14.181849.3725@newshost.anu.edu.au>
Organization: MH Software, Hayward, CA.
Lines: 26

In article <1991Jun14.181849.3725@newshost.anu.edu.au> cmf851@anu.oz.au (Albert Langer) writes:
 > Sorry if I have misunderstood this thread. My understanding is that
 > SCSI drives normally map out bad sectors themselves and neither report
 > defects to the operating system nor make use of a manufacturer's defect
 > list. If that is wrong, somebody please tell me. If it is right then
 > the discussion seems pointless unless I have misunderstood it.
 > 
 > (I am assuming that AHA 1452 is a typo for AHA 1542 SCSI host adaptor).

Yep.  The SCSI controller is a 1542A.  Using 386/ix 2.0.2 and a pair of
Seagate 80 MByte drives (I forget the number) I get hard errors reported to
the console.  Automatic mad sector mapping is NOT performed.  This is a GOOD
thing as the hard errors are usually (more than 98% of the time) not hard
errors. That is I can copy files, get errors on the original file, look at
the copy, and find nothing wrong.  I suspect the cheap Seagate drives -- or
the fact that I'm running two of them.

The last time I mapped out a bad sector by hand I lost a chunk of the
/usr/lib/news directory.  (I always wait until after doing a full backup
before mapping anything out).  Think of the problems that would occur of this
happened automatically.

// marc
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