Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!nathan
From: nathan@eddie.MIT.EDU (Nathan Glasser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Hard disk problem
Message-ID: <9971@eddie.MIT.EDU>
Date: 29 Aug 88 20:05:11 GMT
References: <20173@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <360@pigs.UUCP>
Reply-To: nathan@eddie.MIT.EDU (Nathan Glasser)
Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 30

In article <360@pigs.UUCP> haugj@pigs.UUCP (Joe Bob Willie) writes:
>in part it make sense.  as the disk ages, the alignment of the heads change
>and the relationship of the head to the center of the track along with it.
>thus, a drive may develop errors as time goes by which can be corrected
>with a periodic low level format.
>
>note that a high level format will not work.  you must rewrite all of
>the data on the disk, including address marks, preambles, etc.

I am another person who is currently having hard disk problems. I'm
planning to (as soon as I get enough floppies) to back up everything
I can recover, and then "reformat".

I'm not sure what level of format to do. It sounds like from the
above comments that I should do the lowest level possible. Assuming
I can remember what program it was that did this, and where the program
is, I feel like I don't have enough information.

There was a list of bad sectors (or something like that) that came
with the disk. Assuming I can find this list, I can enter it again,
but what about the new problems the disk has? I'm worried that there
are new bad sectors, and that the low level format will simply let
data be put all over the bad areas again. Is this worry unfounded?

				Thanks,
-- 
				Nathan Glasser
fnord				nathan@{mit-eddie.uucp, xx.lcs.mit.edu}
"A tribble is the only love that money can buy."	    
Presently there is insufficient evidence to conclude that tribbles spread AIDS.