From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 27 07:49:47 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C1A18106568B for ; Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:49:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from michaelgrunewald@yahoo.fr) Received: from smtp5.netcologne.de (smtp5.netcologne.de [194.8.194.25]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8855F8FC08 for ; Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:49:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from medbh.celt.neu (xdsl-213-196-225-165.netcologne.de [213.196.225.165]) by smtp5.netcologne.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6717E40D027 for ; Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:31:19 +0100 (CET) Message-Id: From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Gr=FCnewald_Micha=EBl?= To: freebsd questions general Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v936) Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:31:18 +0100 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.936) Subject: Bad sectors: how bad can it be X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:49:47 -0000 Dear list, after an incorrect power-off of my FreeBSD system, it does not boot =20 any more, BTX stops even before showing the cute beastie menu. =20 Starting the machine by other means, I found that the hard-drive is =20 installed on has bad sectors. I am looking for advices on how to =20 recover from this, if possible. Basically the question is: shall I discard my hard-drive with bad-=20 sectors, or can I continue using it? The Linux system I use to diagnose this says: hdb: media error (bad sector): status=3D0x51 { DriveReady =20 SeekComplete Error } hdb: media error (bad sector): error=3D0x30 { LastFailedSense=3D0x03 = } ... Buffer I/O error on device hdb, logical block 1663200 etc. Since I use computers (1992) these are my first bad sectors :) (on =20 hard drives, taking floppies into account is no fun!). I hence have =20 several questions: -- is it possible to let these sectors? -- to which extents a hard-drive with bad sectors is usable? -- while the apparition of these bad sectors coincide with an =20 incorrect power-off, are the two events related? The machine suffered =20= plenty improper power-offs (or many), in the last years and did not =20 react so badly! --=20 Thank you in advance for your advices, Micha=EBl=