Re: Any 3650/Fujitsu Eagle users out there?

[rwk@Crl.dec.com (Robert W. Kerns)]

    Date: Thu, 19 Sep 91 10:29:24 -0500
    From: fleming@utdallas.edu (Mike Fleming)

    The service tech here suggests using a bad blocks file from any disk, then
    making the disk into one large paging file and running fix-fep-file on that.
    Fix-fep-file will lock out the real bad blocks. The cost is that some good
    blocks will be marked bad, but you save keying in the list.

You should file that advice in your bad blocks file.

Truncating the bad-blocks file first would avoid wasting
the bogusly "bad" blocks, but I think that service tech
gave you bad advice.

The problem is that some marginal blocks may not be detected.
Many of the bad blocks in a typical bad-blocks file will test
out as good, but that doesn't mean that they will be reliable
over time.

Also, the program which computes the bad blocks from the info supplied
with the drive takes into account the fact that errors in certain places
on the track can render an entire track prone to search errors, and
knows to discard the entire track.

[It also knows not to allocate any of the various interal
files like FREE-PAGES.FEP and the file header for
BAD-BLOCKS.FEP or BAD-BLOCKS.FEP (!) in a bad block,
which could occur using the wrong tape.  Very unlikely,
but possible.  FIX-FEP-FILE can't detect or fix those,
either.]

fix-fep-file can only exersize the data portions of the
disk, and not the formatting portions, so it cannot detect
any marginality in those areas.

Disk drive reliability is *NOT* the place for laziness.
Type in the data.  And check it carefully.