diskdefect man page on BSDi

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DISKDEFECT(8)		  BSD System Manager's Manual		 DISKDEFECT(8)

NAME
     diskdefect - read/write standard bad sector information

SYNOPSIS
     diskdefect [-acnswvy] [-b bad-block-info] [-C copy-retries] [-g
		geometry-label] [-t replacement-type] disk [disk-snum
		[bad-block ...]]

DESCRIPTION
     Diskdefect can be used to inspect and/or change the information stored on
     a disk that is used by the disk drivers to implement bad sector forward-
     ing.  The diskdefect program is capable of using several different bad-
     block formats.  At present, however, only the bad144(5) format and a spe-
     cial type called ``null'' are supported.  The null format is never stored
     on disk, and can be used to run a simple reliability scan.

     Available options:

     -a	     The argument list (and the results of the disk scan if the -s or
	     -w options were given) are new bad sectors to be added to an ex-
	     isting bad-block table.  The new replacement sectors will be
	     filled with zero bytes unless the -c or -C flags are used.

	     If invoked without the -a option diskdefect will overwrite the
	     existing bad-block table and you must specify a new disk serial
	     number to be stored with the bad-block table.

     -b bad-block-info
	     Controls how the bad block map is handled.

	     For the bad144 format, bad-block-info may be a digit in 0 through
	     4; this specifies which copy of the bad block information to use.
	     Only that copy is loaded and updated.  The default is to search
	     for a good header, and to update all the copies.

     -c	     Forces an attempt to copy the old sector to the replacement.
	     This may be useful when replacing an unreliable sector.  Ten at-
	     tempts will be made to read the original data.

     -C copy-retries
	     Similar to -c, but allows the number of retries to be specified.

     -g geometry-label
	     Allows diskdefect to proceed on an unlabeled disk.	 Rather than
	     reading the disk geometry from the pack label, diskdefect will
	     use the specified type from disktab(5).

     -t replacement-type
	     Tells diskdefect to use the specified type of bad block replace-
	     ment.  By default, diskdefect will choose the correct type for
	     the disk, but if desired, the default type can be overridden.
	     Note that this has no effect on the underlying driver; using the
	     wrong type of bad block replacement is not likely to do anything
	     useful.  Thus, -t really exists only to set the null replacement
	     type.

     -n	     Disables writing the bad-block table to disk (no write mode).
	     This option is like the -n option to the make(1) and sh(1) pro-
	     grams.  This is independent of the -w option.

     -s	     Scans the disk and collects sectors that could not be read (or
	     with the -w option, written).  With the -v (verbose) option, -s
	     will print a cylinder map with periods (.) for good cylinders and
	     x's for bad cylinders and at the end will print a bad-block sum-
	     mary containing the logical sector number, cylinder, head, and
	     sector of the error.  When scanning sector by sector it spins the
	     sequence '/', '-', '\', '|'.

     -w	     Like -s, but rewrites each cylinder after reading it.  (This
	     tests the disk a little more thoroughly.)

	     WARNING: Use -w with caution and only on idle disks.  Between
	     reading data and writing it back out the system may have changed
	     it.

     -v	     The entire process is described as it happens in gory detail if
	     -v (verbose) is given.

     -y	     Don't ask any questions (assumes yes).

     The diskdefect program is invoked by giving a device name (e.g. wd0, wd1,
     etc.).  With no optional arguments it reads the current defect list of
     the corresponding disk and prints out the bad sector information.	It is-
     sues a warning if the list is out of order.  The diskdefect program may
     also be invoked with a serial number for the pack and a list of bad sec-
     tors.  It will write the supplied information into all copies of the bad-
     sector file, replacing any previous information.  Note, however, that
     diskdefect does not arrange for the specified sectors to be marked bad in
     this case.	 This procedure should only be used to restore known bad sec-
     tor information which was destroyed.

     It is no longer necessary to reboot to allow the kernel to reread the
     bad-sector table from the drive.

EXAMPLES
     diskdefect -swcv wd0 12345678
	     Initialize the bad-block table to the result of the scan (erase
	     any existing bad-block information).  Set the disk serial number
	     to 12345678.  Attempt to copy the old data to the replacement
	     sectors, if that fails zero the replacement sector.

     diskdefect -a -swcv wd0
	     Scan the disk (read and write) and add any new bad sectors the
	     the existing bad-block table.  Attempt to copy the old data to
	     the replacement sectors, if that fails zero the replacement sec-
	     tor.

SEE ALSO
     bad144(5),	 disktab(5),  badsect(8)

BUGS
     It should be possible to format disks on-line under BSD.

     It should be possible to mark bad sectors on drives of all types.

     More thorough (but destructive) ``worst case pattern'' writes should be
     available.

HISTORY
     The diskdefect command appeared in 4.1BSD as bad144(8).  It has been
     merged with drck(8) at BSDI, and the name changed to be more intuitive
     and otherwise protect the innocent.

4th Berkeley Distribution	March 16, 1991				     2
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