[TriLUG] data recovery---Linux low-level format program available??
al johson
alfjon at mindspring.com
Wed Mar 20 20:23:42 EST 2002
I went to the website and saw the program in question.
However, I'm not really talking about a program that will just erase (or
wipe a hard drive, or do what used to be called a "high-level format"), but
a program which will test a drive to determine where the bad sectors are
located and (and this is the most important part:) mark them so that data
cannot be written to those sectors in the future!!
The result is that the drive contains fewer bytes of storage space, but
these fewer bytes will definitely be safe to use. In other words, a
defective hard drive will be "fixed". Let me explain further (at the risk of
"over-explaining") what I'm talking about. It used to be the case that when
you bought a new hard drive there was a paper map printed on the outside of
the drive telling you which sectors were bad on the drive (and every map was
different because every drive varied in which parts of the drive had
errors), this was because in those days every hard drive had such errors but
if they were identified to the OS then the OS wouldn't attempt to write to
them. When you started to use the new hard drive you actually had to use a
program to map where these errors were so your OS wouldn't use them. After
using the drive for many years NEW bad sectors might appear and so using the
same software you could rescan the drive and identify any NEW sectors which
should not be written to. This program would also create a new map of these
bad sectors so the OS would not use these new bad sectors. With such a
program the life of hard drives was greatly extended. The program actually
came with the new hard drives in many cases.
Then suddenly these programs disappeared and we were told that the new IDE
hard drives could not be "low-level formatted" anymore. This may indeed be
the case, but I distinctly reading recently that there was a Linux program
which could "low-level format" a hard drive.
Why should anyone want such a program?? Well if you are frugal and
love to use old computer hardware which has seen better days (sound like
anyone you might know??) , such a tool would be invaluable to literally turn
a bad hard drive into a good workable one. Yes, the hard drive is wiped
clean, but the drive surface is also tested and errors (while not actually
repaired) are marked for the OS to avoid. Maybe I'm missing something here,
but I haven't heard anyone doing a low-level format on an IDE drive in a
long time, and when I asked friends about this who remember what I'm talking
about they tell me they haven't seen such a program either. Maybe the
program you're referring to here does test the disk surface and remap the
hard drive for use, in other words it "fixes" the drive, but I can't tell
when it is simply described as a "wipe" program, which simply means a
erasure to me. More details would be appreciated.
Al
===============================
----- Original Message -----
From: Vestal, Roy L. <rvestal at rti.org>
To: <trilug at trilug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 9:16 AM
Subject: RE: [TriLUG] data recovery---Linux low-level format program
available??
> Low Level format IDE. Not really necessary, since the onboard bios does
> that, but a utility you can use under MS or Linux is BCWipe.
www.jetico.com
> is where to get it. It meets Finland and USA DOD wipe certifications.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: al johson [mailto:alfjon at mindspring.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 2:26 AM
> To: trilug at trilug.org
> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] data recovery---Linux low-level format program
> available??
>
>
> And if the drive is apparently not working anyway, you should definitely
put
> it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer!! I've brought lots of
drives
> back to life with this simple trick. You must thoroughly defrost it before
> attempting to use it in your computer.
> You just leave it at room temp. for 5-6 hrs. Don't laugh, it does work in
> many cases. If the drive does work, you should back it up as soon as
> possible thereafter. And discard it after you've gotten your data back.
>
> Speaking of fixing hard drives, decades ago we used to "low-level
format
> hard drives" to fix them.
> This process would mark all the bad sectors on the drive and you could
then
> use the drive as if it were new! Unfortunately, the software which did
this
> trick sort of disappeared (I'm assuming the drive manufacturers wanted it
to
> die so they could sell more hard drives).
>
> I only mention this because I read somewhere that there was a LINUX
program
> which could low level format a hard drive. Anyone know if this is true and
> what the name of that program might be??? Al Johnson
> KQ4FP at arrl.net
>
> =============
> ========================
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: lfwelty <lfwelty at redback.com>
> To: <trilug at trilug.org>
> Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 10:09 PM
> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] data recovery
>
>
> > Have you eliminated all hw issues, pwr, cabling?
> > Have you tried booting the drive in another computer?
> >
> > Is this a scsi or ide drive?
> >
> > If ide, have you changed its master/slave settings
> > since the original failure? You may have better luck
> > booting off another drive and mounting the damaged
> > drive as a slave on the ide...
> >
> > If you want to try to handle the recovery yourself,
> > try taking a look at the LDP:
> >
>
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Linux-Complete-Backup-and-Recovery-HOWTO/index
> .html
> >
> > Good luck.
> >
> > F.
> >
> > JoJo Almario wrote:
> > >
> > > The hard drive isn't even recognized in the bios. I hada backup
script
> > > running that would tar the files to a tape drive but somehow it only
was
> > > able to get 2 gigs of the 5gigs.
> > > I tried the hdd in a different computer but it still wouldn't
recognize
> in
> > > the bios. It had the whole home partition on it, with the boot, root,
> /usr
> > > and /etc on the first drive. No RAID so I can't rebuild. I suck!
Any
> > > suggestions?
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: trilug-admin at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-admin at trilug.org]On
Behalf
> > > Of Sinner from the Prairy
> > > Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 4:46 PM
> > > To: trilug at trilug.org
> > > Subject: Re: [TriLUG] data recovery
> > >
> > > On Dilluns 18 Març 2002 10:32 am, JoJo Almario wrote:
> > > > Does anybody know of a data recovery service anywhere in the
triangle.
> My
> > > > drive went down and the back up was corrupted. There is mission
> critical
> > > > datat on there, so proximity is essential
> > >
> > > What is the problem?
> > >
> > > I recently recovered data from a HDD that had lost the partition
table.
> I
> > > used
> > > TestDisk from http://www.cgsecurity.org , an open source solution.
> > >
> > > Good luck!
> > >
> > > Salut,
> > > Sinner
> > > --
> > > "I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your
> father
> > > smelt of elderberries!"
> > > RedHat QA Test Engineer -- Running RedHat 7.2 on i386smp
> > > http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > TriLUG mailing list
> > > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> > > TriLUG Organizational FAQ:
> > > http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > TriLUG mailing list
> > > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> > > TriLUG Organizational FAQ:
> > > http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
> >
> > --
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Frank Welty | 15401 Weston Parkway, Suite 150
> > lfwelty at redback.com | Cary, NC 27513
> > Redback Networks | desk:919.678.2175 m: 919.264.7495
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> > _______________________________________________
> > TriLUG mailing list
> > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> > TriLUG Organizational FAQ:
> > http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
>
> _______________________________________________
> TriLUG mailing list
> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> TriLUG Organizational FAQ:
> http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
> _______________________________________________
> TriLUG mailing list
> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> TriLUG Organizational FAQ:
> http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
More information about the TriLUG
mailing list