Re: how to simulate/insert a hard drive (physical) bad block error?

hi ya

On Fri, Apr 00, 2005 at 07:58:32PM -0800, Gary Funck wrote:
> We'd like to test a disk imaging/copy device/procedure to see how it
> fares if the source drive has one/more bad block errors.  Is there a way,
> by communicating with the hard drive, presumably at a very low level,
> to convince the drive that it should mark a sector as having a
> permannent error, and to _not_ have it try and spare this particular
> sector to a good sector on an alternate track?  Basically, we'd like
> to insert what appears to be several (physical) bad blocks for the
> purposes of testing.

badblocks are defined several places ..
        - at the disk controller ... you probably wont have access to
        changing that ( in firmware )

        - marked on the tracks of the platter ...
        ( you can write/flag it as bad ) with a standard dos bios interrupt

        - fs badblock checking

using dd will probably give you some bad blocks too if you're willing
to check it bit by bit ..

        - good data on the source written to bad blocks on the target
        with c/h/s remapping disabled

c ya
alvin

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