Re: [tlug] Bad blocks on HD found during RH install

[Stephen Lee <sl@example.com>]

Botond Botyanszki <9915104t@example.com> wrote:
> Jean-Christian Imbeault wrote:
> > You think one bad block means I should trash the drive? I tought a
> > couple of bad blocks are normal ...
> 
> Normal? You have pretty high chances of getting more of those in the near
> future. (I'm speaking from experience). Don't wait for the time when another
> bunch of bad sectors will hit. Of course you can still use this drive for
> storing less important data.

It might not be the drive.  You could be getting an error due to driver
bug, bad cable, wrong DMA setting, etc.  Try going to the drive
manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic util.  IBM,
Seagate and Maxtor all have diag. floppies you can make and boot from to
verify drive integrity.

Modern ATA drives have hidden spare sectors, and bad sectors are
remapped to those without being seen by the user.  If you can see actual
bad sectors, that means the drive is in pretty bad shape and you should
replace it before it goes bad completely.

Stephen