Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!sco!stephm
From: stephm@sco.COM (Stephen P. Marr)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: fixed disk error
Message-ID: <497@scovert>
Date: 1 May 88 22:35:14 GMT
References: <1988Apr29.151753.3956@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: stephm@sco.COM (Stephen P. Marr)
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Lines: 45
Keywords: fixed disk, error
Summary: Write/Drive fault == controller failure

romwa@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Mark Dornfeld) writes:
>
<...>Can anyone help with this Xenix error message?
>
>error on fixed disk (minor 40), block=16544
>Error Type 0, Code 3, Unit 0
>Write/Drive Fault
>
><...>
>
>Mark T. Dornfeld
>
><...>
>
>mark@utgpu!rom      - or -     romwa@utgpu

A Write/Drive Fault means that the controller went bye-bye.
I'm responsible for running some 35+ machines here at SCO,
and I've seen this error on two machines in the last 2.5 years.

On the first occasion, I went through the same grief as you
trying to figure out what the bejeezus was wrong; I tried badtrk'ing
just about anything that seemed anywhere near the error location
(I figured the the location by calculating the start of the filesystem,
and knowing my drive parameters, I figured out where an offset of
XXX blocks was, and badtrk'd the track before it, the track after,
and the offending track.

I got a similar error in an unrelated region within two days.
"GARFLE" says I, as I proceeded to do it all over again, all the
time thinking, "If this keeps up, there won't be much of a disk left."

Again, within two days it happened again; so I replaced the drive.
That still didn't fix the problem.  So I replaced the controller.
I've since had the controller tested by the manufacturer, and it indeed
turned up faulty, and the original drive has worked perfectly in another
machine ever since.

So, my advice to you is to replace the controller.

Best of luck to you,
-- 
Steph Marr,  The Santa Cruz Operation Inc.,  ...!{uunet,ihnp4,ucscc}!sco!stephm
Internet: (MX Handlers) stephm@sco.COM  (Others) @ucscc.ucsc.edu:stephm@sco.COM
"There was coffee.  Life would go on."     --William Gibson