Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!killer!pollux!dalsqnt!rpp386!pigs!haugj
From: haugj@pigs.UUCP (Joe Bob Willie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Spinrite Concerns
Summary: heads move, and with them so do the bad spots.
Message-ID: <369@pigs.UUCP>
Date: 24 Aug 88 16:52:31 GMT
References: <3857@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM>
Reply-To: haugj@pigs.UUCP (Joe Bob Willie)
Organization: Big "D" Oil and Gas
Lines: 24

In article <3857@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM> toma@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) writes:
>2).  This product is addictive (and not in a nice way!).  The first time it 
>is run it will take blocks marked as bad and mark them as good again!  Because
>these block are marginal, you must run Spinrite on a regular basis to refresh
>and retest the sectors.  Just using the program once and putting it away is
>riskier than never running it at all.  I must admit that there is a way to
>prevent Spinrite from marking bad blocks as good, but you have to go out of
>your way to do it.

this program sounds as though it suffers from adventurous stupidity.  but
with good intentions. ;-)

a periodic media reformat seems to be a good idea.  as the heads change
their alignment they may move so as to position new media defects under
themselves.  this would cause the previously marked bad spots to no longer
be at the center of the track (or close enough to cause trouble) while
introducing new flaws at the same time.

i plan on reformatting and running a media reliablity test in the next
month or two.  i would not be surprized if some of the original bad spots
have become good, or if i managed to find a few new bad spots as well.
-- 
 jfh@rpp386.uucp	(The Beach Bum at The Big "D" Home for Wayward Hackers)
     "Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity"
                -- Hanlon's Razor