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From: ejb@think.ARPA (Erik Bailey)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: hard disk monitor
Message-ID: <2892@think.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 28-Sep-85 13:40:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: think.2892
Posted: Sat Sep 28 13:40:28 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 08:31:49 EDT
References: <5141@allegra.UUCP> <1816@gondor.UUCP>
Reply-To: ejb@think.UUCP (Erik Bailey)
Distribution: net.micro.pc
Organization: Thinking Machines, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 39
Summary: 

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)
>
>I would also like a copy E-mail or post to net.
>
>-- 
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.