home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- /nof
- August 18, 1986Number 147
-
-
- PREPARE Utility on the Initial SFT I Version 2.0a Release
-
-
- A problem has been encountered in the PREPARE utility of the initial
- release of SFT I version 2.0a. The PREPARE utility reads a list of
- bad blocks found in the bad block table (sectors 18 and 19) and
- redirects them to good blocks. Associated with each redirected block
- is a status byte which is used by SFT I to determine if the sector
- contains valid data. The problem was created by PREPARE
- erroneously copying the status byte of the bad block over the status
- byte of an otherwise good block in the redirection area. This caused
- the network to think that a block contained invalid data when in
- fact the data was valid. The status byte of the redirected blocks
- would only clear itself when a write operation reset the status byte
- on the redirected blocks.
-
- The problem of the erroneous status byte became apparent when the
- INSTALL utility was executed after the PREPARE utility had already
- redirected the bad blocks. The INSTALL utility does a "pre-read" on
- the area where the system is to be installed. If the INSTALL utility
- finds that the status byte of the redirected blocks is flagged as
- containing bad data, the error message "Error writing file" is
- displayed. This problem usually does not occur on disk drives with
- few or no bad blocks.
-
- To fix this problem, a new version of PREPARE (Rev. B) has been
- created. As of Aug 18, 1986, the current release of the INSTALL
- diskette for SFT I has been upgraded to include the new PREPARE
- utility. All subsequent shipments of SFT I will include the new
- INSTALL diskette.
-
- Any customer who received SFT I prior to Aug 18, 1986 will receive
- a new INSTALL diskette containing the new PREPARE utility. The
- list on page two comprises all the serial numbers of the SFT I
- systems that were sent out prior to this date. If the serial number
- of your system is listed, a new INSTALL diskette will be set to you
- automatically.
-
- S/N OF SFT I TO BE UPDATED
- 28578 28581 28584 28586
- 28595 28599 28623 28632
- 28645 29614 29634 28227
- 28232 28244 28245 28256
- 28555 28557 28559 28561
- 28566 28569 29662 29717
- 29721 29722 29723 29746
- 29972 29977 502043 502068
- 502070 502071 502072 502079
- 502080 502082 502083 502084
- 502087 502095 502098 502101
- /for
-