Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 20:49:45 -0500 (EST) From: "Lance" <lance@legion59.dissimulo.com> To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: low level HD format pgm Message-ID: <bGVnaW9uNTk=.763110d2ce385ee9bac09b7172282bc0@1073699385.cotse.net>
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fbsd_user wrote: > My hard drive got hard read errors today. > Need pgm to do low level format to mark bad tracks so they are not > used any more. > This type utility used to come with the hard drive but not any more. > Been to mfg web site, they do not have this kind of utility any > more. > Anybody know if there is some thing in the ports collection that > will do low level format? > Or maybe on the FBSD CD2 fixit disk? Modern hard drives are built with excess capacity to counter this problem. My understanding is that the drive finds its bad sectors on its own, marks them as bad, and reassigns 'reserve' sectors to replace them. This is all transparent to the user. If that is correct it means that your drive is SO far gone that it has no more reserve sectors to reassign. That is why you are actually seeing the errors. I would enterpret this to mean that the ENTIRE drive is in danger of failing at any moment. I would take all the data off it and replace it right away. Good luck, /Lance
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