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HDD Bad Blocks

pinto_guy

Well-known member
I have revived yet another SE30. The HDD, however (Quantum Prodrive 80S) is throwing errors. I thought that a Lido format would find and reallocate bad blocks, but it does not seem to be doing that. So I tried the "Overnight Test" in the Lido software, hoping to do just that. However, it seems to be giving up after 100 errors have been found.

Would anyone have a suggestion ? I could replace the HDD of course, but would prefer of course to keep the original, even if that means reducing the capacity a bit.

Thanks in advance.

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
If you are getting new defects save the data (if needed) and get another drive.

I have old MFM drives with defects but they don't get new ones so I use them as is. Anything newer that's starts giving me problems get trashed.

 

pinto_guy

Well-known member
No, I don't think I get new ones. Just the ones that had grown during the 25 years in storage. The HDD was dead, but Lido's Format revived it. However, a 7.0.1 OS install failed.

I tried to split the 80M drive into two partitions, and I could install the OS into one of them. However, I found more bad blocks in that partition as well.

Do you know of any format/test software that reallocates bad blocks, and that is not limited to 100 media errors ? 

 

techknight

Well-known member
The fact that it is a Prodrive is means enough to get rid of it, but now that it has bad sectors? thats likely because the heads are slinging melted rubber everywhere and its only a matter of time before it dies with the click of death. 

 

techknight

Well-known member
Case in point: NO amount of software is gonna fix this: (this was a prodrive. Cant remember if it was a 2.5" or a 3.5")

20130915_162032.jpg

20130915_162052.jpg

20130915_162038.jpg

 

BadGoldEagle

Well-known member
Weirdly enough all my quantums work great, I've only had bad luck with the sonys. (2 outta 3 are shot) It's usually the other way round.

One of the Sonys is currently on hold, having the same symptoms as your prodrive... But I ran out of sectors so I guess this one is toast. The Mac OS is able to format it fine though.

 
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68krazy

Well-known member
I've had mixed luck with Quantum drives, good luck with IBM drives....

excellent luck with SCSI2SD  [8D]

 

pinto_guy

Well-known member
Thanks ILikeTech for the advice. Downloading Silverlining Pro now, and will try this week-end when I finally got time to tinker.

And yes Techknight, I spend 27 years in R&D at Seagate, IBM, and HGST, working on HDD reliability, so I can tell you everything you want to know (or don't) about HDD failure modes!!

By the way, I used to create all my system floppies on a PC using Transmac and Disk Copy, but now that I have a MacBook, I use the "sudo dd" command on the Mac Terminal, using a $9 USB floppy drive bought on eBay, and it's a breeze !

 

pinto_guy

Well-known member
I finally found a solution to my problem. I used a combination of Lido and Macinstor software (I have an old external 600MD HDD from them, with the software in it). I found that most of the bad blocks were clustered in a small range, in the middle of the drive. What I did then was to note the range of block address (in my case between blocks 58,200 and 58,300), and create 3 partitions. Two of them with the "good" areas, and a small one with the bad block zone. Somehow, Lido allows for a "scratch" partition which never mounts. So now, I have a boot partition of ~30MB, and an extra data partition of ~50MB. I installed system 7.0.1, and I'm now up and running !

 

pinto_guy

Well-known member
Weirdly enough all my quantums work great, I've only had bad luck with the sonys. (2 outta 3 are shot) It's usually the other way round.

One of the Sonys is currently on hold, having the same symptoms as your prodrive... But I ran out of sectors so I guess this one is toast. The Mac OS is able to format it fine though.
Yeah, those Sonys are finicky. I spent almost the whole week-end going through my collection of old 3.5" SCSI HDD's. I have 19 of them, and 6 external ones. Interestingly, none of my two Sony's full height 40MB spun on power on, but both did after I gently tapped their side. Looks like they both suffered from a mild case of stiction. They both formatted OK.

Of the 19 bare drives, 6 of them did not make it (2 Miniscribe, 2 Conner, 1 Quantum, 1 IBM). I love the 20MB Miniscribe drive, with its noisy stepper motor actuator that you can actually see. I still have two working ones and they are beautiful.

Of my 6 external ones, two were dead. So all in all, not a bad ratio overall. The thrill of reading data from magnetic domains on a disk surface, that had been dormant for so many years is incredible. I must say I also feel a bit of a voyeur when I open documents that people had left on them.

My best find: a full height HP 540MB, as healthy as ever, which I installed in one of the dead external drive.

By the way BadGoldEagle, I know you live in France. Are you French (I am) ?

 

pinto_guy

Well-known member
I'm a French expat, born and raised in Paris, but now living in the SF Bay Area. Great place for a vintage Mac fan !

 
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