[Info-vax] disk errors

[R.A.Omond]

On 24/07/2010 19:24, Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
> [...snip...]
> I originally dismounted it due to errors.  They are apparently still
> there and show up on READ.  If the ONLY problem was a bad block, and the
> disk was a member of a shadow set (with two other members), then should
> I have even noticed anything at all?
>
> Is there any chance that an INITIALIZE would fix the problem?  In other
> words, if a block went bad after it was written to, then of course I
> still get the error when trying to read it, but if I re-init the disk,
> then presumably that block will never be written to.
>
> Is there any way to see which block is causing the error then try to
> write to it and see if it is revectored?

Phillip, apologies for late response to your query (I've been on holiday
and just about catching up on "stuff" ...).

I checked through this thread and notice that the disk is attached to a 
VAX ... however, if you can attach it temporarily to one of your Alphas,
then consider doing a low-level format of it with RZTOOLS:

$ run sys$etc:rztools_alpha

RZTools> dka0:/format

This has the advantage that it doesn't affect the host in performance
terms in any way (it's a single SCSI command to tell the disk to format
itself), and will re-vector any bad blocks found.