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%sccs.include.redist.man%
@(#)vdformat.8 5.2 (Berkeley) 04/20/91
VDFORMAT can be used to format disk drives, relocate known flawed sectors, verify disk surfaces, print seek profile graphs for disk drives, exercise disk drives, and perform general disk drive maintenance procedures.
VDFORMAT keeps track of all known flaws by placing their addresses in a bad sector map on the last cylinder of each disk drive. This information is used during subsequent formatter operations to keep all known bad sectors correctly relocated.
Flaw addresses are loaded into the bad sector map in four ways. The first is by reading the manufacturer's flaw map directly from the disk surface. The second is by automatically adding any new flaws found during verify operations. The third is by direct operator entry. The fourth is by reading the entire disk surface once and taking note of any errors or relocations found during the reads.
The following basic commands are always available, even when long formatting operations are underway:
Command Action Help Prints a list of available options. Status Display current state of formatter. Kill Aborts all operations.
There are two abbreviations available for the above commands. These abbreviations are strictly for operator convenience. They are:
Abbreviation Command ? Help ! Status
In addition, the following commands are available from the Operation prompt level:
Command Action List List all operations specified so far. Delete Delete specific operations. Reset Reinitialize VDFORMAT, and start all over again. Start Start operations. Info Tell everything that is known about a disk. Format Format and verify disk surface. Verify Non-destructively verify disk surface. Relocate Add known flaws to bad sector map. Correct Correct erroneous relocations or drive identification. Profile Print a graph of seek time vs seek length. Exercise Perform read / write / seek exercises on disk.
The starting banner prints the program name, version number, and enough information for the operator to get started without reading this manual page.
Example VDFORMAT Version 3.0 Type "Help" for help, "Start" to start specified operations. Operation?
The operator has a help command available for use at any time. The Help command displays available options according to the current context.
In addition to the examples below there are further examples of help messages throughout the operation examples.
Example Operation? Help The following operations are available: Reset - Reinitialize VDFORMAT and start over. List - List all operations specified so far. Delete - Delete specific operations. Format - Format and verify disk surface. Verify - Non-destructively verify disk surface. Relocate - Add known flaws to bad sector map. Correct - Correct erroneous relocations or drive ID. Info - Display known disk information. Profile - Display seek profile graph of disk. Exercise - Perform seek exercises on disk. Start - Start operations. Operation?
The Status command may be typed in at any time to determine the status of the formatter. The status message will explain what the formatter is waiting for, the current operation, and a progress report if the formatter is busy.
Example Starting format on controller 0, drive 1, drive type is FSD. Help The following commands are available: Status - Display current state of formatter. Status Formatting on controller 0, drive 1, drive type is FSD. Inspecting disk to determine current state. Currently inspecting cylinder 120, track 10, sector 15. Formatting completed successfully.
The Kill command may be used to stop operations that are in progress already. Kill will always have meaning, may be issued at any time, and will always leave disks in a consistent state.
Formatter operations are broken into two phases: entry and execution.
During the entry phase the operator enters all the disk operations that he / she wants to execute during the execution phase. After the operation list is entered correctly the operator issues the start command and execution begins.
The execution phase executes all commands specified during the entry phase on the specified disks. These commands are accumulated and executed later because each operation may require up to several hours to complete. By deferring operations, VDFORMAT frees the operator to do other work during this time period.
The commands that are detailed in this section are grouped according to the immediacy of their actions. Commands such as Delete and Reset, which will execute the moment they are keyed into the system, are termed immediate commands. Commands which effect after the Start command is issued are termed deferred commands.
Instead of forcing the operator to specify one operation on one drive at a time, comma separated lists and dash separated ranges can be entered for operations, controller numbers, and drive numbers. Please refer to examples.
The List operation displays all commands that were keyed in by the operator and are ready to be executed when the Start command is issued.
Example Operation? List The following operations will occur when Start is issued: Format on Controller 0, drive 1, type FSD. Format on Controller 0, drive 2, type XFD. Format on Controller 0, drive 3, type XFD. Relocate on Controller 0, drive 0, type FSD.
Delete is intended to provide a simple editing facility for command lists. Between the Delete operation and the ability to add more operations to the operation list, Any error in the operation list can be corrected.
When the delete operation is specified, a numbered list of operations is printed on the console and VDFORMAT will repeatedly ask for line numbers to delete.
Line numbering for the Delete operation will remain the same even after a line is deleted. This is done to avoid confusion, but it implies that the same line can be deleted multiple times. This presents no problems for the formatter and no error will be returned if this is done.
The Delete prompt level is terminated by entering 'Quit' (or the Kill command) as shown in the following example:
Example Operation? Delete 1) Format on Controller 0, drive 1, type FSD. 2) Format on Controller 0, drive 2, type XFD. 3) Format on Controller 0, drive 3, type XFD. 4) Format on Controller 1, drive 0, type XSD. 5) Format on Controller 1, drive 1, type XSD. 6) Format on Controller 1, drive 2, type XSD. 7) Format on Controller 1, drive 3, type XSD. 8) Relocate on Controller 0, drive 0, type FSD. Delete line? 2 2) Format using Controller 0, drive 2, type FSD has been deleted. Delete line? 8 8) Relocate using Controller 0, drive 0, type FSD has been deleted. Delete line? Quit Operation?
The Reset operation clears all commands keyed in so far and executes internal consistency checks for the formatter. The main use is to quickly delete all operations, and reset internal state. The operator who really messed up the command sequence can start again from the top.
Example Operation? Reset Reset the world. Are you sure? Yes All operations specified have been deleted. Operation?
The Start command starts processing the command list that was typed in by the operator. The operator should be sure that all commands are correct before proceeding.
Example Operation? Start Starting format on controller 0, drive 1, drive type is FSD.
Info gives a full report of everything that is known about a drive. This includes which sectors were bad, to what sector they were relocated, how were the errors detected, and the current format state.
Example Operation? Info Gather information on which controller? 0 Drives on controller 0? 1 Drive type for controller 0 drive 1? fsd Operation? Start Gathering information for controller 0, drive 1. Module number is 123456789. Drive type is FSD. Drive contains a bad sector map. The following sectors are known to be bad: cyl 181, head 2, pos 4470, len 1 (Sector #57991) -> sector 261760. cyl 210, head 6, pos 8880, len 1 (Sector #67406) -> sector 261764. cyl 292, head 3, pos 19590, len 1 (Sector #93567) -> sector 261761. cyl 293, head 3, pos 19590, len 1 (Sector #93887) -> sector 261762. Information display completed successfully.
The format operation will read the flaw map information directly from the drives and use that information to map out all flaws after formatting the drive's surface.
After formatting the drive's surface the drive surface is verified using the number of patterns requested by the operator. The number of patterns may range from 0 to 16. It is suggested that at least one pattern be used so potential drive problems are more likely to be found before real information is written on the drives.
Example Operation? Format Format on which controller? Help The following controllers are attached to the system Controller 0, which is a VDDC controller. Controller 1, which is an SMD-E controller. Controller 2, which is an SMD-E controller. Format on which controller? 0 Number of patterns to use when verifying? 1 Drives on controller 0? Help Drives 0 through 3 are acceptable on VDDC controllers. Drives on controller 0? 1 Drive type for controller 0 drive 1? Help The following drive types are available to VDDC controllers: FSD - 160 Mb Control Data winchester drive. SMD - 300 Mb Control Data Removable media drive. XFD - 340 Mb Control Data winchester drive. Drive type for controller 0 drive 1? fsd Module serial number for controller 0 drive 1? 1234 Operation? Start Starting format on controller 0, drive 1, drive type is FSD. ** Warning - Unable to relocate sector 12347, to map out using BADSECT use the following values: On the 'a' partition use block 6000 On the 'c' partition use block 25 Formatting completed successfully.
The verify operation can be used to check for new flaws on a disk that currently has data on it. This is accomplished by writing the necessary patterns on the drive's surface, reading the information back, and comparing the results to the original pattern. If a flaw is found the sector is relocated immediately. Each new flaw will be relocated and permanently added to the bad sector map.
Example Operation? Verify Verify on which controller? 0 Drives on controller 0? 1 Drive type for controller 0 drive 1? fsd Operation? Start Starting verify on controller 0, drive 1, drive type is FSD. Verification completed successfully.
The operator has the ability to manually type in known flaws using the CDC flaw map format, UNIX file-system / block numbers, absolute sector numbers, and absolute track numbers.
VDFORMAT will automatically switch back and forth between the various forms of inputing flaw addresses by looking at the first character on any line. If the first character is between 'a' and 'h' then it is assumed that the character is a file system name and the next input will be the actual UNIX block number, if the first character is an 's' then sector numbers are entered, if the first character is an 't' then track numbers are entered, otherwise flaw map format is assumed.
Example Operation? Relocate Relocate on controller? 0 Drives on controller 0? 0 Drive type for controller 0 drive 0? fsd Operation? Start Adding flaws to bad sector map on Controller 0, drive 1, type FSD. Location? a 20 Confirm block 20 on file-system 'a' ? Yes Location? 10 5 12594 10 Confirm Cyl 10, head 5, offset 12594, len 10 (Sector 12345)? Yes Location? Sector 1000 Confirm sector 1000? Yes Location? Track 25 Confirm track 25? Yes Location? a 200 Confirm relocation of block 200 on file-system 'a' ? Yes Location? Start Relocation complete. Operation?
The correct operation is used to correct any information that was incorrectly written to disk. This information includes sectors that were wrongly specified by the operator and the operator entered pack identification.
Example Operation? Correct Correct on controller? 0 Drives on controller 0? 0 Drive type for controller 0 drive 0? fsd Operation? Start Making corrections to bad sector map on Controller 0, drive 0, type FSD Location? ID Pack ID is 123456789. Change to? 1234567890 Pack ID changed to 1234567890. Location? se 20 Confirm relocation removal of sector 20? Yes Sector 20 removed. Location? t 21 Confirm relocation removal of track 21? Yes Track 21 removed. Location? 10 5 125 Confirm relocation removal of Cylinder 10, head 5, offset 125? Yes Cylinder 10, head 5, offset 125 removed. Location? Start Relocation complete. Operation?
The profile operation is used to print a graph of seek time verses seek distance for the specified drive. Each point on the graph prints as either a star ('*') or a plus ('+') to indicate which direction the point was rounded. The star shows that the point was rounded up, and the plus shows rounding down has taken place.
Example Operation? Profile Profile on controller? 0 Drives on controller 0? 0 Drive type for controller 0 drive 0? xsd Operation? Start Disk seek profile for controller 0, drive 0, type XSD. Seek | Seek time (ms) Length |0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 -------|-----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ 1 | * 13 | + 25 | + 37 | * 49 | * 61 | + 73 | + 85 | + 97 | * 109 | + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 577 | * 589 | + 601 | * 613 | * 625 | + 637 | * 697 | + 709 | * -------|-----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ |0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Profile completed successfully.
The exercise operation does an exhaustive test of the drive read / write / seek logic on a drive. The test is destructive and calculations show that it should take about 22 weeks to complete the entire test. It is suggested that the test be run for as long as the operator can take it before killing the test. (24 hours is about right.)
Example Operation? Exercise Profile on controller? 0 Drives on controller 0? 0 Drive type for controller 0 drive 0? xsd Operation? Start Starting disk exercise on controller 0, drive 0, type XSD. Pass 1... Pass 2... Pass 3... . . . Pass 710... Exercise completed successfully.
The controller status will be printed out after any unrecoverable error is found. The exact meaning of the error words can be found in vddc(4).
vddc(4)