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From: "John S. Dyson" <toor@dyson.iquest.net>
Message-Id: <199608300310.WAA01078@dyson.iquest.net>
Subject: Re: strange error with WD family disk
To: hlew@sequence.Stanford.EDU (Howard Lew)
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1996 22:10:10 -0500 (EST)
Cc: dyson@freebsd.org, igor@cs.ibank.ru, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960829195103.26496C-100000@vegemite.Stanford.EDU> from "Howard Lew" at Aug 29, 96 07:52:38 pm
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>
> > ftp.wdc.com.  You would do well to call the WD support number
> > for further help.  (I have had two drives fail with the old
> > microcode.)  WD has some updated microcode that fixes the drive,
> > but if your surface is damaged too bad, then you need to return
> > the drive for replacement.
> > 
> > John
> 
> Sort of dumb question, but you are kidding right?
> 
> If not then  how does someone get the updated microcode?  Or do we have 
> to return the drive to Western Digital?
> 
I have an RMA about to ship 2 of 'em back now (a 1.6GB, and a 2.5GB) that
have completely failed.  They do have a download with which you can effect
the microcode update (their term for it is an "overlay".)  Before applying
the patch, you need to scan the disk for bad spots (and I guess it does
bad block forwarding.)  Unfortunately, you need to run MS-DOS to perform
the update :-(.

Again, this is not definitive, but WD appears to know about the problem,
and there is "something" wrong.

John