Re: formating a disk

[paul@PERSEPHONE.aegean-sea.dialnet.symbolics.com (Paul Cross)]

    Date: Thu, 27 Jun 91 12:28-0000
    From: p2@porter.asl.dialnet.symbolics.com (Peter Paine)

    It is very common for people to write over IFS tapes when needing an extra
    tape for a backup dump. Similarly, when machines are sold the IFS tape is
    often thrown in the trash. This is particularly wasteful as Lisp Machines
    have useful lives that span decades (unlike many a fashion box).  If your
    disk does not have the bad blocks list printed on it, I'd recommend
    sticking a paper list on the drive case for backstop safety.

On 36xx machines:

If you do not have an IFS tape or a bad blocks list, you'll be able to
get the bad blocks information you need by typing
(si:print-fep-filesystem <N>), where <N> is the disk unit number.
Hardcopy the output about bad-blocks.fep, and save it as a file, too.
The information is mostly in base 8, so when you are later
reconstructing the disk, you'll need to remember that.  Run this
function today and you might be thanking me later.

I don't know about XL machines.  Maybe someone else will suggest how to
get the bad blocks info off an XL's disk.