Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sunybcs!boulder!hao!gatech!mcnc!decvax!cca!mirror!adelie!infinet!ulowell!page From: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Hard Drive Grumbling Message-ID: <2392@swan.ulowell.edu> Date: 9 Jan 88 06:32:39 GMT References: <2058@gryphon.CTS.COM> Reply-To: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) Organization: University of Lowell, Computer Science Dept. Lines: 92 [hey, my From: line is finally correct!] hrlaser@pnet02.cts.com (Harv Laser) wrote: >alluvasudden, up pops a requester "Error Validating Volume Supradrive, >Key 7553 already set"... and a couple more grinks, and then another one >"Disk Structure Corrupt! Use DISKDOCTOR to repair" <<<>>> First of all, I'd like to see CBM change the requester - advocating the use of DISKDOCTOR is just asking for trouble. The 'Key' in AmigaDOS is just a block number. The current file system has 'information blocks' that have, among other things, maps of blocks that point to other things. The three main 'things' are: 1. Root block: has a list of the bitmap, top-level directories & files 2. Directory block has a list of the child directories and files 3. File block: has a list of the data blocks. But you knew that. I've oversimplified somewhat, but you get the idea. The root block is just a modified directory block. The "Key 7553 already set" means that somebody tried to use block 7553 when it was already holding something else, like somehow you had two entries for the same file in a directory, and it got noticed. DOS then marks the bitmap as BAD & tells you about it. You probably can't find out what caused it, but you can probably recover. Using something like sectorama, you can search for occurances of that block number across the disk. First order of business is to read that block and see what's in it. If it's data, look at the file the data belongs to (by looking at the parent of the data block). Find the parent of the file, that's the directory it's in, etc. Now that you (possibly) know what 7553 is being used for, you then have the task of searching for some block somewhere that falsely advertises IT is the parent of that file. Of course, this is a pain in the ass, and I've probably oversimplified too much to be of any use. >Can overlapping icon names cause this disaster to happen? No. There is a known bug in Workbench where if you move a drawer into a drawer that was inside the first drawer, it lets you do it and then gets horribly confused. But I don't think this is what you are up against. >Is there ANY way short of a hard disk reformat to get the sucker to >validate when that "Key nnnn already set" requester comes up? Not easily. You can cheat and set the 'bitmap valid' word in the root block, but you're asking for a LOT of trouble if you then write to the disk, since your bitmap will be all messed up. You can use Sectorama, which (for the person who doesn't want to know about the internals of the FS) is so much of a hassle that it is better just to backup the disk (since you can read a disk that's not validated) and reformat it. >- I used SDBackup to backup all the files (good program although slow) You can turn off the compression, it speeds it up quite a bit. >every single file that I backed up with SDBackup popped up another >requester that said "Volume Supradrive is not Validated!" Sometimes you just gotta turn that archive-bit-setting feature off! [You can't, by the way] >has anyone come up with a program that can overcome >the "Key nnnn already set" and "Volume xxx is not Validated" problem >that could possibly save me, or others, in the future Unfortunately, there are STILL no utilities for hacking the FS that are really useful. I'm working on a suite of special-purpose programs for error detection & recovery (for regular ol' users, not FS hackers); and I'll certainly have one that fixes the "Key nnnn already set". The other thing I'm doing is committing all this info to bits & bytes so other people learn the ins and outs (and dos and donts) of the file systems. Hmmm, maybe I'll patch KS to advertise MY programs instead of DiskDoctor. Yeah, and I'll call it "Get Outta My File System"! Yeah yeah, that's the ticket... :-) ..Bob PS People have already started asking me -- when? Ah, sometime before Christmas? I just upgraded my disk controller, disk driver, and put in a new file system, and the three don't seem to want to get along the way I think they should. Film at eleven. -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@ulowell.edu ulowell!page "I've never liked reality all that much, but I haven't found a better solution." --Dave Haynie, Commodore-Amiga