Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!super!udel!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!cadre!pitt!cisunx!ejkst
From: ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Self-repairing SCSI disks!
Message-ID: <12840@cisunx.UUCP>
Date: 28 Sep 88 17:49:26 GMT
References: <4275@louie.udel.EDU>
Reply-To: ejkst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Eric J. Kennedy)
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Sys
Lines: 43

In article <4275@louie.udel.EDU> mcohen@nrtc.northrop.com (Marty Cohen) writes:
>Why are (at least some) SCSI drives self-repairing?
>
>Configuration: Amiga 1000, 1meg insider, C-Ltd SCSI controller,
>50 meg drive, Live!
>
>Problem: While duplicating EMPTY (to create a sub-directory via
>moving (there ought to be an easier way - the mac is much nicer
>here)), the system freezes, the screen goes blank, and the guru
>appears. Upon reboot, the system tries to access the hard disk

Yeah, why is it that duplicating EMPTY from the workbench is so flakey?
It doesn't crash my system (with 33 Meg drive) but the system freezes
for about 10 seconds and the drive light comes on for a long time.  It
can't take that long to just make a new directory and copy the icon.

>and seemingly fails, with the light on the hard disk flickering
>periodically.
>
>Solution (courtsey of C-Ltd): Just let it run!! According to
>C-Ltd, the disk is being repaired. Eventually (5 min to a few
>hours), the disk will be ok. 

This is not the disk repairing itself, but rather is the AmigaDOS disk
validator repairing the disk.  (You know, it's that file in L: called
disk-validator.  "Ohhh, *That's* what that does..." :-)  

When you crashed during a write to the disk, the hard disk got slightly
munged.   The validator was just trying to repair the damage.  In my
experience, the only thing that doesn't make it is the file being
written to.  In your case, the directory Empty.


This brings up another question, though.  How good is the
disk-validator?  I've had it fix my hard drive about 4 or 5 times now,
and never noticed any ill effects, (except for the file that was
originally clobbered) but just how reliable and trustworthy is it?


-- 
------------
Eric Kennedy
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP