Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!mucs!r2!pjj
From: pjj@r2.uucp (Pete Jinks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: disc testing
Message-ID: <690@m1.cs.man.ac.uk>
Date: 16 Feb 90 18:09:53 GMT
Sender: news@cs.man.ac.uk
Lines: 35

I am trying to write a floppy disc tester to check the magnetic medium.
i.e. write a known pattern to disc & check that it is there on reading.
(and perhaps patch the FATs (& directories?) if it finds a new fault)

1) Although formatting sometimes detects faults, why doesn't it always do so ?
   Is it because I need to use several different test patterns (slow) ?

2) Does such a program exist already ?
   If not, would people like a copy if & when I get it working ?

3) To speed things up, I am trying to access a track at a time. With 2-sided,
   9 sector per track discs, rwabs will not let me read 18 sectors, but will
   let me read 9 - is this as expected ?

4) I would also like to reposition the read/write head over the next track
   while I am checking the previous track - how can I do this ?
   Are there any other ways to speed things up ?

5) I suspect that TOS will automatically check the sector(s) written to disc
   for me - is this so ? how can I turn it on (or check that it is on) if it
   is optional ?

6) Like an idiot, as I was using C for the first time, I accessed drive '0'
   instead of drive 0 (i.e. 0x30 instead of 0x00) and got to my hard disc.
   Which partition did this access ? I think that I corrupted a sector & want
   to get the right replacement from backup.
   Which hard drives can be write protected ?
   Is there software available which will "write protect" my hard drive ?
   (I don't mean virus-proof it)

7) I have been offered a formatter that will give 11 sectors per track. Could
   anyone with experience of using discs with 10 or 11 sectors per track
   comment ?
   
Thanks for any help that you can give me.