Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 04:40:17 -0800 (PST) From: Donald Burr <dburr@POBoxes.com> To: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: questions-digest V4 #119 Message-ID: <XFMail.980317044017.dburr@POBoxes.com>
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- My secret spy satellite informs me that on 17-Mar-98, questions-digest wrote: > I recently got a new hard drive. It's a Maxtor Diamondmax 3.2G UDMA > (my mobo does not support UDMA, oh well). It seems to work OK. Here's > what dmesg says at boot: > > > wdc0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7 irq 14 flags 0x80ff80ff on isa > wdc0: unit 0 (wd0): <Maxtor 83240D3>, 32-bit, multi-block-16 > wd0: 3090MB (6328665 sectors), 6697 cyls, 15 heads, 63 S/T, 512 B/S > > But after a while, I get a message like this: > > wd0s1e: reverting to non-multi sector mode reading fsbn 40816 of > 40656-40895 (wd0s1 bn 405360; cn 25 tn 59 sn 18)wd0: > status 51<rdy,seekdone,err> error 4<abort> BACK UP YOUR DATA ***NOW*** (IF IT IS NOT TOO LATE ALREADY). DO NOT PASS "GO". DO NOT COLLECT $200. THIS DISK IS IN IMMINENT DANGER OF FAILING! THIS IS A ***RED ALERT***. CAPTAIN KIRK, REPORT TO THE BRIDGE! (Sorry for the overdramatization, but I really want to drive the point home. I reall mean it -- your drive will shortly become toast.) Why do I know this? Because the exact same thing happened to me, with the exact same drive (DiamondMax 3.2 GB). I started getting these errors, I thought it was something that I had configured wrong, or FreeBSD does not support UDMA, etc. Boy was I wrong -- a couple days after they started appearing, the drive made all sorts of nasty noises and basically went poof! Unfortunately, by the time I realized I was teetering on the edge of a cliff, I had already teetered over the edge. I lost a lot of data, that I had to spend weeks going through piles of backup disks, asking friends who I have given files to, etc. to try and piece back together. If you still have a manufacturer's warranty on the drive, my advice to you is USE IT. Be sure they send you , as a replacement, the *very latest* hardware and firmware revision of the drive. If you still are within your store warranty for the drive (i.e. you can still take it back for exchange, refund, or store credit), DO SO. I advise you to get a different drive, perhaps even do what I did (below). Right now a lot of mfgr's (even Maxtor) are having really good rebate deals on the higher sized (3+ GB) drives, take advantage of them while they last! I ended up replaced this with a DiamondMax 4.3 GB drive: wdc0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7 irq 14 flags 0x80ff on isa wdc0: unit 0 (wd0): <Maxtor 84320D4>, 32-bit, multi-block-16 wd0: 4120MB (8438850 sectors), 8930 cyls, 15 heads, 63 S/T, 512 B/S These drives seem to use a different mechanism than the 3.2 GB that failed me. (the drive mechanism sounds different, the circuit board looked different, etc.) So far (been about a month, of constant 24hr per day usage) it has performed flawlessly. I'm quite satisfied with it. The extra 1.something GB is nice too. :) The price difference was insignificant (in fact, believe it or not, the 4.3 may have even been turned out cheaper, factoring in the rebate.) - --- Donald Burr <dburr@POBoxes.com> - Ask me for my PGP key | PGP: Your WWW HomePage: http://DonaldBurr.base.org/ ICQ #1347455 | right to Address: P.O. Box 91212, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1212 | 'Net privacy. Phone: (805) 957-9666 FAX: (800) 492-5954 | USE IT. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBNQ5vMfjpixuAwagxAQFq6AQAgUjVuKBvUb2gi1lU0dNt+ZJPTB7hUl+K 8p6Qb9TjwbG4fOTdu6NQrSzKz4S+1KBTJX79TcIxVDJ5cHu+ml5UIrBwP3xUSrRA dVNxSYNCdZMtuh1SM48d/ZDV4G68b2DSPU6xUTnrahaXDBUscqMoJXIlDqTLcz6/ 1l6LIX2u4uc= =BNKZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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