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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!think!ejb
From: ejb@think.ARPA (Erik Bailey)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: hard disk monitor
Message-ID: <2943@think.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 2-Oct-85 18:33:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: think.2943
Posted: Wed Oct  2 18:33:41 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 4-Oct-85 03:06:44 EDT
References: <5141@allegra.UUCP> <1816@gondor.UUCP> <2892@think.ARPA>
Reply-To: ejb@think.UUCP (Erik Bailey)
Distribution: net.micro.pc
Organization: Thinking Machines, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 58
Summary: 

In article <2892@think.ARPA> ejb@think.UUCP (Erik Bailey) writes:
>In article <1816@gondor.UUCP> schuler@gondor.UUCP (David W. Schuler) writes:
>>> when ms-dos has a problem reading a sector from a floppy or from
>>> the hard disk, it retries up to 5 times.  trouble is, it does not
>>> warn you when it recovers after, say, 3 or 4 attempts.  one would
>>> like to know when this is going on, since it is an early warning
>>> of disk problems.
>>> 
>>> one of the pc magazines published a short article with code to patch
>>> ms-dos so that it would report as it retried disk operations.
>>> can anyone provide a pointer to the article?  has anyone actually
>>> implemented this?  experience?  thanks, -ron gordon (allegra!rdg)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

>The article you are talking about (I think) is that in Volume 4, No. 12
>(June 11, 1985) of PC Magazine. It is in the PROGRAMMING column on p.
>263. The program is called DSKWATCH, and attaches itself to DOS,
>intercepting all disk errors, even those that don't make it to the
>Abort, Retry... thing (that is after 5 errors). The article gives an
>extensive description of the program, and disk errors in general. I have
>been using the program ever since I got the magazine in the mail, and it
>works beuatifully! I really don't known what I did without it! It tells
>you the following errors (w/ brief blurb by me):
>
>NO RESPONSE  - no signals recieved from drive (ie door open)
>FAILED SEEK  - something interfered w/ locating data on disk
>NEC ERROR    - PC has recieved bad data from NEC disk controller. bad.
>BAD CRC SEEN - Bad CRC found
>DMA OVERRUN  - PC was so busy that it denied NEC chip access to data
>IMPOS SECTOR - Tried to read/write sector that ain't there
>NO ADDR MARK - NEC lost its place
>W. PROTECTED - Write protected disk
>ERR UNKNOWN  - Bad news. No-one knows what the heck is going on. Start
>               looking for your service contract...
>
>Well, hope this helps... --ERIK.
>
>PS - if you need source, I will post it.


Ok, looks like I'll have to eat my words here... response has been
rather greater than I anticipated, so it looks like I'll have to get my
act together, and find the source. HOWEVER - this may take awhile. I
REFUSE to type in the listing in PC magazine, so the way I'd get it is
through PC MAg's RBBS (PC-IRS [Interactive Reader Service]). IF you can
get it from there, great. But it might take me a while to grab it, as I
call BBS's VERY rarely. BUT - I *WILL* do it. Don't flame at me! BTW -
the number to the BBS is (212) 696-0360. It runs standard RBBS-PC,
although the msg section is disabled. Hope this helps all you
disk-error-prone-and-or-paranoid-and-or-anything-else-having-to-do-with-disks
people! And remember - I WILL post the source...eventually.

Good luck.

--Erik Bailey

PS - I have no connection with PC Magazine; just a happy subscriber.