Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!rutgers!ucsd!ames!necntc!dandelion!ulowell!page
From: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A2000 Hard Drive Validation Problem
Message-ID: <8132@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 18 Jul 88 15:48:38 GMT
References: <640@oscvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Organization: University of Lowell, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 46

>KEY 24239 ALREADY SET.  Block 24239 happens to be a directory header block.

It means more than one block 'claims' it uses the block.  For example,
a file might say 'one of my data blocks is 24239' or a directory says
'one of my file header blocks is at 24239' while some directory says
'one of my subdirectory blocks is 24239'.  The validator doesn't like
this.

>writing is not allowed since the drive is not validated.

This is what you want.

>Attempts at fixing the root block with a block editor have not been allowed

What program are you using?  Most (if not all) disk editors bypass DOS
and talk directly to the device, which has no idea about filesystem layout.

>Can the drive be fixed without having to reformat?

Yes.  You have to find the multiple references to the block.  Probably
the best way is to write a program to scan each block, and look to see
if it claims to have 24239 (0x5EAF) as a neighbor (parent, child, next
data block, etc).  If so, print the block number to the screen, then
use a disk editor later to look at all those blocks and find the
offending block(s) (hopefully you'll only have one) and fix it.

Of course there's a lot of filesystem wizardry at work in the last
paragraph, and unless you know what you're doing (or are willing
to learn) your best bets at this point are:

	1. reformat the disk and restore from your last backup
	2. send your disk & controller to somebody who will
	   fix your filesystem structure for you (hmmm ... maybe I
	   should start a FS reclamation consulting service :-)
	3. beg Dave Haynie to release his version of Disksalv that
	   works with hard disks.

It would also be nice if the validator helped you out here by telling
you WHERE the duplicate references were, since it already has the
information.  Maybe in KS 1.4.

..Bob
-- 
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept.  page@swan.ulowell.edu  ulowell!page
"What a wonder is USENET; such wholesale production of conjecture from
such a trifling investment in fact."	-- Carl S. Gutekunst