re: a modest request
The problem with bad sectors is not with sectors that show a write check
but with those that don't show a write check but are bad. The write
check on most hard drives is very simple and consists only of parity.
If a certain number of bits are dropped then there will be no write
check and install will work perfectly. You will never know about this
until you try to run the program because there will be no read error.
In addition there is the case where buffers are being allocated. No
check of media integrity is made on these(swap partition). This has
always been a problem with RH. Most shops have discs with small bad
spots and many discs develop these over time. The c option was put into
mkfs just to take care of these problems. At the present time we must
take ANY disc that displays even a small bad spot and use mkfs on
another system before we can install Linux. I suspect that a surprising
number of the strange troubles that are being reported by only one user
are due to this problem. When you invoke Disc Druid you need to be able
to request a long format or else mkfs needs to be on the recovery disc.
Currently discs are tested at the factory and bad sectors are locked
out In some large discs there are quite a few bad spots. In normal
operation perfectly good discs will have bad spots develop over time.
This is not a serious problem with modern discs if it is handled by the
software. The problem has always been that RH doesn't handle the
problem. Incidently, Microsoft does.