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From: wwhite@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Bill White)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: low-level format
Message-ID: <18482@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 2-Nov-87 12:38:37 EST
Article-I.D.: teknowle.18482
Posted: Mon Nov  2 12:38:37 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Nov-87 03:30:50 EST
References: <4678@zen.berkeley.edu>
Distribution: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Organization: Teknowledge, Inc., Palo Alto CA
Lines: 27

in article <4678@zen.berkeley.edu>, woan@cory.Berkeley.EDU says:
> 
> My hard disk recently seems to have blown-up or something. Overnight
> it seems to have developed great difficulty reading/writing. I tried
> using DOS format to try to map out bad sectors but to no avail. Mysterious
> read/write errors periodically occur with no warning all over the disk.
> 
> I am told by some that I may be able to solve my problems with a low-level
> reformat of the hard-disk, but I do not have the software to do so. If anyone
> happens to have a PD formatter, please let me know... By the way the hard 
> disk is a trashy CMI 20 meg. in one of those first 2000 AT's to roll off the 
> assembly line of IBM... 

My AT, which is almost 2 years old now, started out with a CMI drive. IBM
replaced it twice during the warranty period (the 2nd replacement wasn't a 
CMI). Each time the failure symptoms were the same. Sectors start to go bad
for no apparent reason. Each day I'd use the Norton Utilities to map out
a few more bad clusters, only to end up with more the next day. 
Reformatting (using Advanced Diagnostics to do a low level format)
seemed to bring back all the disk, but after a few days
the problem came right back. I'd replace the disk asap if I were you.

Bill White
wwhite@teknowledge.arpa
-- 
	Bill White
	WWhite@Teknowledge