IDE disk drives do not automatically map out bad blocks like other drives supported by Solaris software. Before installing Solaris on an IDE disk, you might want to perform a surface analysis on the disk. To perform surface analysis on an IDE disk, follow this procedure.
Boot to the installation media.
Start the format(1M) program.
# format |
Specify the IDE disk drive on which you want to perform a surface analysis.
# cxdy |
Is the controller number
Is the device number
Determine if you have an fdisk partition.
If a Solaris fdisk partition already exists, proceed to Step 5.
If a Solaris fdisk partition does not exist, use the fdisk command to create a Solaris partition on the disk.
format> fdisk |
To begin the surface analysis, type:
format> analyze |
Determine the current settings, type:
analyze> config |
(Optional) To change settings, type:
analyze> setup |
To find bad blocks, type:
analyze> type_of_surface_analysis |
Is read, write, or compare
If format finds bad blocks, it remaps them.
To exit the analysis, type:
analyze> quit |
Determine if you want to specify blocks to remap.
If no, go to Step 11.
If yes, type:
format> repair |
To exit the format program, type:
quit |
Restart the media in multiuser mode.