Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!att!whuts!whuxr!ljw
From: ljw@whuxr.ATT.COM (WU)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Cause/cure of bad sectors??
Summary: possible solution/cure ...
Keywords: hard disk bad sectors
Message-ID: <132@whuxr.ATT.COM>
Date: 23 Nov 88 14:52:07 GMT
References: <4523@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany NJ
Lines: 38

In article <4523@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, greg@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Gregory Nowak) writes:

>						Her question is, how do
> sectors go bad in a program that's occupied the same disk space for a
> year? And, is this a self-propagating problem; i.e., is simply
> ignoring it actively bad for the disk, or is this simply a result of
> wear and tear on the disk that one might as well put up with if one is
> making backups?


i started using a package called spinrite recently (reviewed in
november byte).  this package allegedly "maximises disk performance"
and "minimises problems."  in their doc, the implication is that
as a drive "ages" the low level track formatting does not get
rewritten.  as the drive goes "out of spec" and/or alignment,
defects may become usable while previously good spots may become
bad.

i used this on one of my drives that was starting to get flakey
in spots (no bad tracks from manufacturer).  sure enough, some of
the tracks i mapped out were bad while some were returned to use
after a re-write of the low level track format.  in addition, a few
other tracks were marked as bad.

i haven't had any long term experience with spinrite, but i found it 
to be user friendly and it seemed to get the job done.

les wu

p.s. i have no connection with gibson research corp.

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