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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!scott.skidmore.edu!psinntp!psinntp!newstand.syr.edu!rodan.acs.syr.edu!amichiel
- From: amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen)
- Subject: Re: Formatting hard drive with one bad head
- Message-ID: <1992Nov10.215703.2641@newstand.syr.edu>
- Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
- References: <Bx75nq.HK9@news.cso.uiuc.edu> <1992Nov8.085153.27085@weyrich.UUCP>
- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 21:57:03 EST
- Lines: 27
-
- In article <15@weyrich.UUCP> uunet.uu.net!weyrich!orville writes:
- >In @news.cso.uiuc.edu> walder@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (John Walder) writes:
- >> I am trying to low-level format a Seagate ST-4096 80 MB hard drive from
- >> an IBM AT. When formatting it one head consistently fails and thus the
- >> bad track map runs out of room. Does anyone know of a way to reformat
-
- >It depends on which head is bad and what your bios is. Ideally, it is the
- >ninth head (head 8) which is bad and your bios supports user-defined disk...
- >In such a case, you just define a disk with one fewer heads. If it is the
- >first head (head 0), then you are SOL. For intermediate cases, you choose
- >a disk type with no more cylinders and no more heads than the number of good
- >heads BEFORE the bad head. You will of course loose capacity.
-
- No matter what head is bad, if you agree that the drive is -junk- you can
- fairly easily open the drive, and jumper the head pickups as needed to move
- the bad platter to be last. IE is #1 is bad, jump #1 & #8. If it is a
- intermediate head, do the same, for example swap # 4 & # 8 if 4 is bad.
- Use a user defined geometry or use the advanced features via software like
- spinwrite or disk manager ( I prefer disk manager and have done this actually)
-
- Also remember, if a head is bad, it probably has hit the platter, and been
- destroyed. The drive chamber will be full of bits and scrappings. Opening
- the drive will allow you to clean out dangerous floating chunks and filings.
- I did this to a old original xt 5 or 10 MB disk, and it lasted another 3 or
- 4 years (much to my total amazement). I was astounded just how terrible the
- platters finally were when the drive died.
-
-