Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!tektronix!tekig5!tekig4!brianr From: brianr@tekig4.TEK.COM (Brian Rhodefer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: jh1 (bridgeboard harddisk problems) Summary: Me too Keywords: jh1 djmount bridgeboard dpformat Message-ID: <3090@tekig4.TEK.COM> Date: 10 Aug 88 03:48:56 GMT References: <880@ozvax.GWD.TEK.COM> Reply-To: brianr@tekig4.TEK.COM (Brian Rhodefer) Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Lines: 53 Last week, I had almost exactly the same experience that Randy Hendry has so calmly described: inability to install and format an 80Mbyte harddisk as JH0: on my Bridgeboard. Same model drive, same model HD controller. I didn't post to the net at the time, partly because I haven't e-mailed my thanks to the folks who replied to my LAST two questions, partly because it took me TWO DAYS to get my amiga working again, but mostly because I was afraid of what I'd say in my enraged state. News that Janus has claimed another victim, however, cannot be borne in silence. My interpretation of the machine's behavior (and please, oh please God let me be wrong) is that the `dpformat' software (which, I want to point out, is intended SPECIFICALLY to format a hard disk), (*>hysterical, outraged, purple-faced-shrieking mode ON <*) CAN'T TOLERATE **ANY** FLAWS ON THE DRIVE! IT DOESN'T MAP-OUT FLAWED TRACKS, it MAPS-OUT FLAWED DRIVES!!!! Is this some sort of cruel bait-and-switch tactic? Am I just learning my lesson for not shelling out another grand for an Amiga-side hard disk? Even IBM & Microsoft, who still brazenly ship that abominable `Edlin' editor with their MS-DOS, know how to supply a functional disk-formatter. [attempt to return to civility:] The requestor that popped up 40 minutes into the `dpformat' suggested that I use `DISKDOCTOR' to un-corrupt the disk. I did. Diskdoctor printed out a list of disk hard errors, and then advised that the disk be re-formatted after saving any of its files. Since JH0: was blank, I proceeded to re-format, again with `dpformat'. Forty (though it would've taken the Bridgeboard's 8088 only eight) minutes later, the exact same requestor, and the exact same nonusable JH0:. I don't know whether I've guessed at the correct solution, but what I've done is to re-run `DISKDOCTOR', and then used the JH0: drive without subsequently re-formatting it. I'm hoping that DISKDOCTOR did the equivalent of flaw-mapping. Side note: Gee, it would've been nice if C-A had provided documentation to explain HOW to use `diskdoctor', particularly when the built-in system requestors instruct people to use it. Everyone, I suppose, is expected to become Registered Developers? Why not include it in the system purchase price? Still waving the Amiga flag, but not as enthusiastically, Brian Rhodefer ...!tektronix!tekig4!brianr