Date: September 9, 1986
Number: 149

Title: COMPSURF Bug Fixes and Enhancements

The latest version of COMPSURF (for Advanced NetWare 86 2.0X and Advanced
NetWare 286 2.0X) contains the following bug fixes and enhancements:

1.A problem existed in COMPSURF's comprehensive test which could have
  corrupted the bad block table.  This problem only occurred with drives
  larger than 50 MB.  One configuration that exhibited the problem was the
  Maxtor XT-1140 running as an IBM AT internal drive.  This problem has now
  been eliminated.

2.The 8 MHz IBM AT has the capability of using drives of type 16 -255.  The
  previous version of COMPSURF displayed a drive in this range as type 15.
  This was only a cosmetic inconvenience and did not effect the operation of
  the program; but the problem has been fixed in the new version.

3.Previously, when the bad block cylinder and head locations were hand
  entered from the factory-reported bad block list, COMPSURF would identify
  two blocks per cylinder and head location as being bad.  Now, COMPSURF
  identifies three blocks per cylinder and head location as being bad.  This
  will help in more accurately using the factory-reported media defect
  information.

4.To do Read/Write tests, COMPSURF generates character patterns that can be
  used to identify variations in the media.  The method in which character
  patterns are generated has been improved.  This should help the new
  COMPSURF to more easily and quickly detect marginal areas of the disk.

The new COMPSURF programs are only available for Advanced NetWare 86 and
Advanced NetWare 286 versions.  They are called "COMP86.EXE" and
"COMP286.EXE" respectively and are located on "NetWire" for your
convenience.