IDE disk performance optimization ??

[bilfast]

Hi Everyone

I'm searching for a tool that works in DOS or LINUX. It would
scan the hard disk surface and monitor the read / write times of each sector. Giving us the ability to mark some areas as bad sectors so that operating system doesn't attempt to use them. I think such a tool could be very useful indeed. By marking out some dodgy sectors we can achieve big performance gains.
I wonder if anybody knows about a utility that does this.

If nobody thought of this before i'll have to code it myself and probably i'm gonna use LINUX.

 

[micker377]

In Windows, that's what Scandisk does automatically: finds bad blocks and marks them for "no use". This is also done everytime you format a drive.

 

[bilfast]

Scandisk is good but it doesnt consider io success times. scandisk will try to recover a sector only if the drive returns crc error after performing multiple read attempts. i'm looking to go below that level. so even if a sector is successfully read after multiple attempts, i would like to mark it a bad sector. scandisk does not let me do this.

 

[paulrw1]

What about the old DOS command, CHKDSK??? It can mark sectors bad, but I don't know how if determines if a sector is bad or not.

 

[dbData]

Both Scandisk and Chkdsk mark bad clusters at the FAT/MFT level. What bilfast wants I don't think they make anymore. Back in the MFM/RLL days you had to "low-level" format a disk. Part of that operation allowed you enter "known bad sectors". It didn't test for them however. You could test them with old tools like AMIDiag. The closest you can get (that I know of) is using the manufacturer's test tools (i.e.; Seatools for Seagate drives, Powermax for Maxtor drives, etc.) these scan the drive and map bad sectors.

But, if you have a drive that has performance problems due to bad sectors you really need to scrap it.


Rick

http://www.data-recovery-hub.com

 

[hotfusion]

(Only just seen this thread...)
How about Spinrite, from

http://www.grc.com

This tests a drive by actively writing and reading back from the disc surface, can perform a benchmarking function, and will remove sectors which prove less than 100% reliable during its extensive testing. Will also return bad sectors to use if they have been mistakenly marked bad by another utility.
Can also offer a good level of data recovery from bad sectors.
(Scandisk will only verify a read, and doesn't test with a write which isn't really a good enough test - a failing sector could still be used for data storage, even though not reliable enough.)

Sounds like an advert for their product, I'm afraid, but I have used Spinrite many times over the years, and it has proved to be an invaluable tool to have around.

Regards, Andy.
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