🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <820777667snz@inf-eden.demon.co.uk>
           cjk@inf-eden.demon.co.uk "Chris Kennington" writes:

> In article <820615882snz@longley.demon.co.uk>
>            David@longley.demon.co.uk "David Longley" writes:
> 
> " I  have  a Western Digital "Caviar" 500MB Hard  drive  which  has 
> " about 10MB of bad blocks. I'd prefer to be able to exclude  these 
> " altogether  through a low level format. Are there  any  utilities 
> " around which will do this? Any Public Domain ones anyone could e-
> " mail me?
> 
>     Other things being equal, as another post has pointed out, you
>  don't need software to do this.  If you use DEBUG to start the
>  control program which is situated at +5 bytes from the load-point of
>  your disk-controller's BIOS, you'll get straight into the low-level
>  formatter, and it will be the correct one for the HDC in question.
> 
>     I've formatted quite a lot of IDEs, for reasons which were good at
>  the time.  You ought to know the drive's configuration (heads,
>  cylinders, sectors/track, possibly write-comp & landing-zone).
>  If you put these in as different from reality, everything goes ahead
>  quite happily but you end up with a drive which has a theoretical
>  'shape' different from its real shape, which does not usually matter
>  (though it may affect performance).  If the theoretical size is less
>  than reality, you've abandoned the extra; if it's greater, then all
>  the sectors which are "off the end" will be bad, and normal formatting
>  will take a LONG time!
> 
>     Problem areas:  Auto-sensing of the drive parameters will (probably)
>  still pick up the real shape, and sometimes the boot won't work if
>  you've altered the shape.
> 
>     BUT:  What are you trying to achieve?  The sectors will probably
>  still be bad.  If they were marked bad in error, a normal format will
>  cure it.
>                                             Chris K.
> -- 
> Chris Kennington        <==x  <==x  <==x         cjk@inf-eden.demon.co.uk
> Eden Cottage, Mays Green, Harpsden, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon. RG9 4AJ.  U.K.
> Tel: +44 1491 574065                                 Fax: +44 1491 410064
> 
I've used WD_IDE.EXE from WD, which purportedly tests the drive's 
tracks and relocates bad sectors/tracks. However, when I then try 
and  Format in DOS, the process continues to about 50%  and  then 
ends  with  "format  terminated". If I thin use Norton  to  do  a 
surface analysis, all the bad blocks reappear.

Surely  the  relocation  algorithim should  have  moved  the  bad 
sectors etc 'out of sight'?

This is the text file for WDAT_IDE.TXT from ftp.wdc.com. I've even
tried providing a F file of the bad tracks, heads etc. It says it
relocates, but format still fails. Any suggestions?

README - WDAT_IDE.TXT


REVISION: 4.04


This utility scans the media and remaps any grown defects on
a Western Digital drive. It also provides performance data
such as seek times and data access times.


COMMAND LINE OPTIONS:

To run the menu-driven test, type 'WDAT_IDE' from the DOS
prompt.

The following options may be included on the command line
       after 'WDAT_IDE':

       L =  open NEW log file WDAT_IDE.LOG (only use this option
            when running the test from a floppy, since hard
            disk data corruption will occur!!!)
            The old WDAT_IDE.LOG will be overwritten.
       S =  skip pause at end of 'no menu' run
       R =  relocate sectors marked as 'bad sectors'
       F =  relocate addresses shown in file WDAT_IDE.DAT
       D =  operate on second drive if F option chosen
       1 =  select first drive, run quick scan with no menu
            or C option
       2 =  select second drive, run quick scan with no menu
            or C option
       C =  comprehensive analysis, no menu.  used with
            options 1 or 2
       Px - Used to address adapter 1F0h, 170h, 1E8h or 168h.
            '1' : 1F0  primary adapter
            '2' : 170  secondary adapter

  (supports - or none  -P1 same as P1 same as -p1 same as p1)
  (space required between options)


The 'L' option may be used at anytime with the above line
options.  It will show the drive ID information and any error
that occurs.  The old WDAT_IDE.LOG will be overwritten.


The data file for the 'F' option should be an ASCII text file
with a C, H and S specified for each address to be relocated.
To relocate a track, specify the C and H and set the S to
255. All addresses must be specified in decimal.  All sector
addresses are for user locations.  All track addresses are
physical locations.  The first sector is specified as one,
not zero.

For example, to relocate the TRANSLATED 23rd sector from
index at C10 H1 and the NATIVE track at C20 H3, store the
following text in WDAT_IDE.DAT:


                    10, 1, 23
                    20, 3, 255



PROGRAM CHARACTERISTICS:

   - retries disabled
   - cache disabled
   - identifies drive models and number of drives
   - menu driven


MENU OPTION DESCRIPTIONS:

    MAIN MENU SELECTION:

        0 - Quick Surface Scan
        1 - Comprehensive Analysis
        2 - Performance Data
        3 - Select Drive
        4 - Park Drives and Quit"
                               

    MENU SELECTION "0 - Quick Surface Scan" description:

        1. Read sequentially, a track at a time.  No 
           writes are issued.

        2. Performs appropriate defect management if errors
           are detected:  See section below for details
           regarding defect management.

        3. Will save user data when conditions permit.  Some
           conditions will not allow the customer data to be
           retrieved.


    MENU SELECTION "1 - Comprehensive Analysis" description:

        1. Prompts user before starting that data will be
           lost, ESCAPE to exit.

        2. Read scan of surface first as in selection zero
           above.

        3. Writes/Read sequentially, the entire surface a
           track at a time.  Each track is written with 9
           data patterns, and 3 reads are issued after each
           write. So each track is read a minimum of 27 times,
           more if errors occur.  The data patterns are:

             PATTERN:

           A: 0031304dc3bad57bc44b75602e358da99986c947dbb0
           B: 6633
           C: 33cb
           D: cb4cf730
           E: 2222
           F: 136b31136bb3
           G: c086043021800
           H: random data
           I: 0000

        4. Performs appropriate defect management:  See
           section below for details regarding defect
           management.

        5. Will not save user data, this selection WILL
           DESTROY all customer data.


    MENU SELECTION "2 - Performance Data" description:

        1. Data collected will be displayed based on drive
           selected.

        2. If no drive is selected or not accessable the
           message 'Can't establish physical parameters'
           will be displayed.

        3. The following data will be displayed.  If the
           L option is selected it will be logged:

               Track to Track SEEK:  shown in milliseconds.

               Average random SEEK:  shown in milliseconds.

               Full stroke SEEK:     shown in milliseconds.

               DATA transfer TEST:  B: = block size, data
                                     shown in kilobytes/sec.

        4. This selection is not restricted to drive list
           maintained by this program.


    MENU SELECTION "3 - Select Drive/Port" description:

        1. This option only allows drives found to be selected.

        2. Powering up a drive from a separate supply is supported
           by this menu option.  Hit P to switch adapter ports,
           Primary or Secondary, (see Px option for address)

        3. If a MASTER jumpered drive is selected with no slave
           a wait of up to 30 seconds may be required to access
           this drive.

        4. Slave is supported without MASTER.

        5. If a drive is selected and accessable the drive
           number in the top window will blink and bottom
           window will show 'DRIVE # is SELECTED'.  If the
           L option is selected the information in 2 above
           will be logged.  Adapter Primary or Secondary will
           show center screen.


DEFECT MANAGEMENT DETAILS:

If an error is detected while reading a track, the following
    steps occur:

   1) If a Bad Block error is detected, then the sector is
      re-formatted as no longer bad.  If R option sector will
      be relocated.

   2) If an error occurs during any read, the relocation
      algorithm is executed, and reverification of the
      track is repeated.


Relocation Algorithm Details:

   If a servo error occurs, the track is relocated.
   If an ID Not Found error occurs, the sector is relocated.
   If a physical track already has 3 relocated sectors, the
      track is relocated.
   If an ECC or DAM error occurs, the sector is relocated.
      Since retries are disabled, correctable ECC errors are
      reported as uncorrectable and are relocated.
   If an ABORTED command error occurs, the relocate track
      function is invoked.


REVISION HISTORY:

  3.80    02/07/95 rbn    last version for ARCH ONE
  4.00    08/23/95 rbn    first release supporting ARCH 2
                          ESC replaced by ALT_X.  Get rid of drive
                          list and help from menu
  4.01    09/08/95 rbn    xlate phy head using total instead of position
                          add relscan2 (1.04) fix for establish ID sector
  4.02    10/04/95 rbn    fix hang on aborted command, reduce reads from
                          10 to 3 on comprehensive
  4.03    10/26/95 rbn    add more zone tables and config sector size
                          to 4 for c10.  drive not supported for c9/c10
  4.04    10/31/95 rbn    change warning message for comprehensive                          


-- 
David Longley