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From: kaz@cadovax.UUCP (Kerry Zimmerman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: hard disk flaw problems
Message-ID: <1884@cadovax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Nov-87 01:00:40 EST
Article-I.D.: cadovax.1884
Posted: Fri Nov 20 01:00:40 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Nov-87 14:52:38 EST
Reply-To: kaz@cadovax.UUCP (Kerry Zimmerman)
Organization: Contel Business Systems, Torrance, CA
Lines: 49
Keywords: hard disk format flaws

[]

This is a good news bad news story.

The good news was that a friend gave me his spare Fujitsu M2243AS
hard disk drive.  This baby has a formatted storage capacity of 
67 megabytes! YUMM.

The bad news is that I can't get it to format with my A2090 controller.
After running prep, booting the system and starting the format, it merrily
formats through cylinder 204.  But, when it gets to 205, format tries,
tries and retries for about fifteen minutes.  Then it finally gives up
saying "can't open Device".

Could anyone answer the following questions to help me use the drive?

1.  I do not have the defect list.  How can I determine the flaws and
    tell them to the Amiga?  There is no utility I've found supplied
    with the controller or with AmigaDos to determine the flaws.
    Format tells you each cylinder it is formatting, but not the
    head, sector or position.

2.  How do you add new flaws to the flaw map?  The prep command is the
    only way I know to enter the flaws, but when you run prep, you must
    reformat the whole disk.  Isn't there a way to add additional flaws
    to the flaw map, should they appear, without using prep?

3.  Why does the format retry so much?  It seems to be wasting its time
    going for fifteen minutes on the same cylinder.  And, why does it
    quit instead of going to the next cylinder?  Shouldn't format just
    decide that the cylinder is flawed, put it in the flaw map and
    go on?

4.  Is there any written documentation on the questions prep asks?
    The controller docs say that prep will ask some questions, but doesn't
    tell you what they are or what they mean.  For example, one question
    prep asks is "pre-comp" cylinder.   It suggests using cylinder 754 
    (the highest cylindar).  The Fuji manual doesn't say anything about a
    "pre-comp" cylinder, so I don't know what to use, other than the 
    suggested default.  Is this correct?

Please Don't let me down.  I have always received excellent help 
here before, and I really want to be able to use the drive.  
Thanks a million.

Kerry Zimmerman
#  {ucbvax,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!kaz  Contel Business Systems 213-323-8170
A difference between an amateur and a professional, 
is that a professional has the right tools.