Surface Scan

[Kris Bodenheimer]

Jonathan Hutchins wrote:

>On Thursday 11 December 2003 03:29 pm, Leo J Mauler wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Surface scan is like the sector tests performed during a format, and it
>>remaps the hard drive to compensate for any new bad or failing sectors on
>>the platters.
>>    
>>
>
>But Leo, it can't do that on an IDE drive where the sectors are all virtual 
>entities mapped by the firmware on the drive.
>
>  
>
However, those mappings DO have a physical location on the disk.  The 
surface scan still is relevant, and useful.  It's not like IDE drives 
have abandoned the overall concept of sectors, and cylinders, they still 
spin, and data is written in circles around the drive.  I would suggest 
that whoever owns this drive should use a Drive Fitness test produced BY 
the drives manufacturer to inspect the drive.  SMART is supposed to 
catch about 70% of the errors a drive has.  however SMART does not 
function the same as a good surface scan.  Also, most modern IDE drives 
can be REALLY formatted ( not quite like a SCSI drive, but closer) with 
utilities provided by the drive manufacturer.  Beware 3rd party 
"universal" drive formatters.  One can generate paperweights with them.  
Kris