.\" $OpenBSD: badsect.8,v 1.15 2006/09/20 20:48:27 jmc Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: badsect.8,v 1.8 1995/03/18 14:54:27 cgd Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1985, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)badsect.8 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93 .\" .Dd June 5, 1993 .Dt BADSECT 8 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm badsect .Nd create files to contain bad sectors .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm badsect .Ar bbdir sector Op Ar ... .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm makes a file to contain a bad sector. Normally, bad sectors are made inaccessible by the standard formatter, which provides a forwarding table for bad sectors to the driver. If a driver supports the bad blocking standard, it is much more preferable to use that method to isolate bad blocks, since the bad block forwarding makes the pack appear perfect, and such packs can then be copied with .Xr dd 1 . The technique used by this program is also less general than bad block forwarding, as .Nm can't make amends for bad blocks in the i-list of file systems or in swap areas. .Pp On some disks, adding a sector which is suddenly bad to the bad sector table currently requires the running of the standard .Tn DEC formatter. Thus to deal with a newly bad block or on disks where the drivers do not support the bad-blocking standard .Nm may be used to good effect. .Pp .Nm is used on a quiet file system in the following way: First mount the file system, and change to its root directory. Make a directory .Li BAD there. Run .Nm badsect , giving as argument the .Ar BAD directory followed by all the bad sectors you wish to add. (The sector numbers must be relative to the beginning of the file system, but this is not hard as the system reports relative sector numbers in its console error messages.) Then change back to the root directory, unmount the file system and run .Xr fsck 8 on the file system. The bad sectors should show up in two files or in the bad sector files and the free list. Have .Em fsck remove files containing the offending bad sectors, but .Em do not have it remove the .Pa BAD/ Ns Em nnnnn files. This will leave the bad sectors in only the .Li BAD files. .Pp .Nm works by giving the specified sector numbers in a .Xr mknod 2 system call, creating an illegal file whose first block address is the block containing the bad sector, and whose name is the bad sector number. When it is discovered by .Em fsck it will ask .Dq Li "HOLD BAD BLOCK?" A positive response will cause .Em fsck to convert the inode to a regular file containing the bad block. .Sh DIAGNOSTICS .Nm refuses to attach a block that resides in a critical area or is out of range of the file system. A warning is issued if the block is already in use. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr fsck 8 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm command appeared in .Bx 4.1 . .Sh BUGS If more than one sector which comprises a file system fragment is bad, you should specify only one of them to .Nm badsect , as the blocks in the bad sector files actually cover all the sectors in a file system fragment.