-help ", " -h

Print a summary of the most important options for sformat .

-xhelp

Print a summary of less frequently used options for sformat .

-version

Prints the sformat version number string and exists.

-ask

Ask again at certain critical sections. This will currently prompt before modifying the disk when in repair mode.

-auto ", " -a

autoformat mode (for production systems). When this option is in effect, sformat will not ask whether to modify the format and partition parameters and will only format disks that are known in the data base. There will be only one question to answer. This will immediately start the formatting process. The -auto option enables certain additional verifications that will guarantee that the disks have a known firmware release and will inform the user that the disk is bad if certain quality tests failed. The disk will not be formatted if the signature code in the data base is bad. This option has not been verified during the last three years. If you need this mode ask the author for additional verification of the code.

Cveri= #, C= #

Number of blocks/verify. Sformat normally will try to verify 1000 sectors with one SCSI command. Some old disk firmware may not able to deal with a number that will imply to read a number of sectors that will not fit in the local memory of the disk.

CWveri= #, CW= #

Number of blocks/write-verify. The limitation noted with the Cveri option applies here again and even on newer disks.

data= name

Name of disk database file (default: 'sformat.dat'). Use this option to force sformat to use a different disk database than the default. In any case, sformat will search in the current directory first. If no file of the appropriate name was found in the current directory, sformat looks in the following path:
/opt schily/etc,  /etc,  /usr/etc.

debug= #, -d

Set the misc debug value to # (with debug=#) or increment the misc debug level by one (with -d). If you specify -dd, this equals to debug=2.

kdebug= #, kd= #

Tell the scg -driver to modify the kernel debug value while SCSI commands are running.

xdebug= #, xd= #

Set the debug level for the parser of the external disk database.

-defmodes

Get default mode parameters from disk. Normally sformat retrieves the default modes parameters from the disk by default when the disk is unformatted or has no sun label and the current mode parameter if the disk has a valid sun label. This option tells sformat retrieve the default mode parameters in any case.

-dmdl

Do not use manufacturer defect list when formatting a disk. This implies that a disk that is formatted with this option will have bad blocks. However some disks that may not be formatted because the manufacturer defect list is broken may become usable again when this option is in effect.

ESDI= #

Pass ESDI command # to the drive and print the result. This will only work if an EMULEX MD21 SCSI/ESDI bridge controller is present.

-force

Force to continue at certain errors. This will currently prompt after the format command fails.

-greassign

Reassign blocks. This is the guru mode, don't use this. Read the description for the -reassign option for more details. This option will simply prompt for block numbers and then reassign them regardless of if they need to be reassigned or not. On some disks the block may seem to be defective even after reassigning it because the old data is copied to the new location without recomputing the CRC. On other disk the old data will be lost. These problems will not arise if you use the -reassign option instead.

-ign_not_found

Ignore record not found errors while verifying the disk. This option is useful when trying to repair disks with many defects (see maxbad option). Some disk errors may cause the whole track to appear bad. If the reported error in these cases is "record not found" , You should first try to repair as many blocks as possible with this option in effect and then repair the remaining blocks without this option.

-inq

Retrieve and print SCSI inquiry data for any type of device. This is useful even on tape drives and scanners.

maxbad= #

When sformat is doing a surface analysis after formatting the disk, it collects a number of bad blocks (usually up to 1023), then reassigns them and then reformats the disk to guarantee that the disk speed will not be reduced by mapped bad blocks. Some disks with many defective blocks will seem to have more defective blocks than they really have, but these false defective blocks need not to be reassigned. This case may be triggered if a defective block directly follows the index. In this case the whole track seems to be bad. If you tell sformat to reformat the disk after repairing one bad block (maxbad=1), this problem will go away.

-modes

Intercative modesense/modeselect. Each mode page exists in 4 versions:
default (PROM), current (RAM), saved (DISK) and changeable (BITMASK).
You may currently view any page if you specify the page number. "This is currently under construction.

-noformat

Force not to format disk even when formatting of the disk has been confirmed. This option may be used to modify mode parameters without formatting the disk.

-nomap

Do not map SCSI address to logical disk name. WARNING: If you use this option, sformat is not able to check whether the disk has mounted partitions. This may damage mounted file systems.

-noparity

Try to disable parity checking on all SCSI commands that are sent by sformat. This may not be possible in all implementations of the scg -driver.

-nowait

Do not wait after formatting the disk. Normally, sformat will prompt for a modification of the disk label and partition table before starting to verify the disk. If this option is in effect, sformat will immediately start to verify the disk after formatting.

-no_defaults

Do not set heuristic defaults. If this option is in effect, all disk parameters must be either retrievable from disk or, if not available, provided by the user.

-prdefect

Get and print defect data. This may be used to print the manufacturer and grown defect list that is stored on the disk.

-prgeom

Get and print geometry data. This is an old option but it is useful to get all mode pages that are supported by this disk.

-prcurgeom

Get and print geometry data. This is basically the same as -prgeom except that -prgeom will obtain the default mode pages, -prcurgeom will report the current values.

-Proto

This option will cause sformat to generate a data base entry for the current disk. Make sure that this data base entry will be generated with the correct format time. Sformat is able to compute a format time from the disk geometry, but newer disks seem to need more time than computed. If the format time is too short, the formatting may be aborted and the disk will not be accessible until formatted again completely.

-r

reformat only mode (gives less messages on label menu)

-randrw

The random read/write test is a method to find problems that may be a result of first seeking to a new place on disk and then writing data to it as it is frequently done by the unix file system. This is usually caused by an inode or super block update. The above problems may be a result of bad bearings in the disk. If the disk does not produce errors while this test is running, there will no harm to the data on disk. However, if you assume that the disk is bad, the data on disk may get corrupted. To minimize the risk of data loss, the first block containing the disk label (partition) and the last block containing the sinfo data (a sformat specific area) will never be written to.

-reassign

Reassign a list of blocks sformat will prompt for. This is the preferred command when trying to repair a block or a list of blocks with already known block addresses. If you don't know the address of a defective block, use the -repair option. Sformat will first try to read the old content of the defective block and then try to refresh the data by writing the old data to the block. If it fails to write to the block, sformat will reassign the defective block. If the block does not cause errors after rewriting the data in it, sformat will ask if the block should be reassigned anyway. NOTE: there are many cases in which a block seems to be defective but actually is not. If for any reason, the disk will be powered off during writing or if there is electro magnetic noise the CRC for a block may get corrupted without any physical harm to the magnetic media. These cases can be repaired by writing again to the block.

-refresh_only

Sformat will not try to reassign a block that still fails after rewriting (refreshing) the data in it. This option is useful in conjunction with the -reassign and the -repair option.

-repair

This is a combination of the -verify and -reassign option. Sformat will first verify the disk and then use the list of bad sectors found to repair the disk.

RW= #

Number of random R/W loops that is used with the -randrw option. The default is the number of physical sectors / 100. This will not last too long and is enough to cover every cylinder of the disk.

-scsi_compliant

Be as SCSI-compliant as possible. This will some old disk cause to fail in reporting mode pages correctly and may be used to see if a disk has these problems.

-seek

Do random or "full stroke seek tests on the disk. This is done by reading data; trying to do "full stroke seek tests my be impossible because of the cache of the disk.

-setmodes

Do a SCSI modeselect with all parameters, that would have been necessary for a format, but do not format the disk. This allows to modify the mode pages of a disk without reformatting it. If the -smp option is used in conjunction with -setmodes the mode parameters will not be saved. In this case, the mode parameters of the disk will return to their old values if a reset or a power cycle occurs.

-silent ", " -s

Do not print out the status of failed commands.

-smp

Do not try to save mode parameters when setting them. This option is useful if a nearly totally damaged disk must be reformatted. Some disk controllers, in this case will reject to format the disk if the area on disk where this data will be stored is not accessible before formatting the disk.

-start

Send a SCSI START UNIT command to the device. This will normally spin up the spindle motor of a disk.

-stop

Send a SCSI STOP UNIT command to the device. This will normally spin down the spindle motor of a disk.

timeout= #

This option will set the default kernel timeout for all SCSI commands that are send by sformat to # seconds. The default value is 20 seconds. This option does not affect the timeout for the format command.

-tr ", " -t

This is an option that is only useful with old Adaptec SCSI bridge controllers. These controllers are not able to deal with logical sector numbers in some cases. Therefore these numbers have to be translated to the cylinder/head/bfi form before. This is done by seeking to the named block and reading the sector header. It may fail if the block has a bad sector header.

VL= #

Set the number of verify passes that are done after formatting a disk to #. The default value is 5. In write verify mode, this number is doubled because sformat will alternate write verify and read verify passes in this case.

-verbose ", " -v

outdated verbose option for SCSI commands.

-V

Increment the verbose level in respect of SCSI command transport by one. This helps to debug problems with SCSI commands. If you get incomprehensible error messages you should use this flag to get more detailed output. -VV will show data buffer content in addition. Using -V or -VV slows down the process and may be the reason for a buffer underrun.

-verify

This options starts sformat in verify disk (surface analysis) mode. Verifying a disk is a method that allows to scan for defects without modifying data on the disk. In this mode, the controller will read the disks without transferring data to the computer while all error recovery is disabled.

Vstart= #

Set the first block for the -verify , -repair , -randrw or the -seek option to #. This is recommended when doing a surface analysis on large disks where is is known that the bad sector is near the end of the disk.

Vend= #

Set the last block for the -verify , -repair , -randrw or the -seek option to #. This is recommended when doing a surface analysis on large disks where is is known that the bad sectors are not at the end of the disk.

-wrveri

If this option is used in while formatting a disk, it tells sformat to write verify the disk instead of only read verifying it after formatting. If it is used in combination with the -verify option, sformat will write verify the disk without prior formatting. In both cases, the old data on disk will be damaged. Write verifying a disk is recommended if the disk is older than two years or has unusual defects. Usual defects in this context are recovered read errors and defects that disappear when simply writing to the defect sector.

Questions that can be answered with yes or no. Yes may be abbreviated with 'y' or 'Y'. These questions are always assumed to be answered with no if you simply enter "carriage return. NOTE: the latter is always a safe answer. All questions that request confirmation for actions that may damage or modify data on disk are formed in such a way that answering them with no or "carriage return will not harm any data. All answers to this type of questions except "[y]es or "[Y]ES are interpreted as if no has been entered.

Questions that need a string as input. If you simply enter "carriage return to this type of question, no modification of the default string will be done.

Questions that need a word selected from a list of valid words as input. If you enter '?', you will get a list of possible input to that question. Each word is on a separate line an (in some cases) is followed by a explanation how to use it.

Questions that need a number within a certain range. For this type of questions, sformat displays the current value and the valid range in parenthesis. The default radix for numbers is ten. If you need to enter a hexadecimal number precede it with 0x if you need to enter an octal number, precede it with 0.

".cs R 4*w'x'/n(.s


sparky joerg > sformat


sformat SCSI format/analysis/repair utilities


Release 3.1, Copyright J. Schilling





scg0 at esp0 initiator id 7


scg1 at esp1 initiator id 7


scsibus0:


c0t0d0           0) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300         ' 'F76D' Disk


c0t1d0           1) 'SEAGATE ' 'ST11200N        ' '8334' Disk


                 2) *


c0t3d0           3) 'TOSHIBA ' 'MK537FB/        ' '6258' Disk


                 4) 'WANGTEK ' '5150ES SCSI-36  ' 'ESB6' Removable Tape


                 5) 'EXABYTE ' 'EXB-8500-85QUE  ' '0428' Removable Tape


                 6) 'TOSHIBA ' 'XM-3401TASUNSLCD' '3593' Removable CD-ROM


                 7) HOST ADAPTOR


scsibus1:


c1t0d0,c1t0d1   10) 'EMULEX  ' 'MD21/S2     ESDI' 'D00 ' Disk


                11) *


c1t2d0          12) 'Maxoptix' 'T3-1304         ' '1.1c' Removable Disk


                13) *


                14) *


                15) *


                16) *


                17) HOST ADAPTOR


Select target -1 (0 - 12)/<cr>: 


 

  


 The line:


 

  


 

".cs R 4*w'x'/n(.s


c0t0d0           0) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300         ' 'F76D' Disk


 

  


 shows the canonical logical disk name (in this case 


  c0t0d0 ),

 the menu number, the SCSI inquiry string and a description of the device type


that was found on this SCSI target.


The menu number is directly related to the SCSI target id of the device and the 


SCSI bus number.


Number 3 is SCSI target # 3 on SCSI bus # 0.


Number 12 is SCSI target # 2 on SCSI bus # 1.


  Sformat is currently not able to deal with more than 8 targets on a bus.


 

  


 When selecting a target (.e.g. # 0), a logical unit selection menu will


be displayed.


 

  


 




Select target -1 (0 - 6)/<cr>:0


scsibus0 target 0:


c0t0d0           0) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300         ' 'F76D' Disk


                 1) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300         ' 'F76D' unsupported


                 2) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300         ' 'F76D' unsupported


                 3) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300         ' 'F76D' unsupported


                 4) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300         ' 'F76D' unsupported


                 5) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300         ' 'F76D' unsupported


                 6) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300         ' 'F76D' unsupported


                 7) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300         ' 'F76D' unsupported


Select lun -1 (0 - 7)/<cr>:


 

  


 The logical unit menu has the same structure as the SCSI target menu.


If the device description contains the word


  unsupported ,

 the controller is not able to support a logical unit of this number.


If the device description contains the word


  "unit not present" ,

 the controller is able to support a logical unit of this number but


there is actually no device connected.


 

  


 When selecting a specific logical unit, the main thread is entered as if


a complete SCSI target specification has been entered from the command 


line.

Mapping and checking

The first thing
sformat does, is to map the SCSI target/lun/busid triplet into
a logical disk name and to check if some
part of the disk is currently mounted.
This mapping will be skipped if the
-nomap
options is specified.
If the disk is mounted, the user will be asked if
it is ok to continue.


Note: this is currently the one and only question.

Inquiry

The second action is getting the inquiry data from the device.
The device type is determined from this data.

Test if device is ready

The next action is to test whether the device is
ready and to wait for the device to become ready.
When the device is ready, it is recalibrated.

Exit for wrong device type

When the device is not a disk, a worm media or optical memory,
sformat terminates.

Read sinfo data

When the device is a disk,
sformat tries to read the
sinfo data from the disk.
This allows the user to see if the device has been formatted with
sformat before. If so,
sformat will print out the number of reformats and the date of the first and last
format.
Sinfo is .B
sformat
specific data that is hold on the last block of the disk.

Process special commands

If options tell
sformat to take special actions (like
-start " or " -prdefect ),
they are done here.
Sformat terminates after processing them.

The formatting procedure starts

The next actions are in preparation for formatting the disk.
Several other things can be done from this thread.
Modifying the disk label will be one example.
You need not to be in fear that following this thread will modify or harm
data on the disk.
There will be extra questions that secure this case.

Test whether the disk is formatted

Several procedures differ if the disk is already formatted and has a
valid label.



The next parts of the main thread will give you some questions to answer.
You may skip most of the questions if you do not want to modify anything.



If some data that is definitely needed by
sformat can not be determined from the disk or the data base,
sformat will force you to answer all questions of a group.
Sformat will only ask question for parameters that are definitely needed or
may be changed on the current disk. The content of the menus differ from disk
to disk.

Read mode data

Several mode pages of the disk are read.
This data and the inquiry data is used to search in the disk data base.


Sformat asks:


"Ignore database disk parameters from 'sformat.dat'?


If you don't want the data from the data base to be used, negotiate the
appropriate question.
Some disks cannot be determined from the fetchable data.
This are mainly disks that are connected to a bridge controller e.g.
a controller from ESDI to SCSI.
Sformat is able to detect the right data in the data base for disks with changeable
media e.g. optical disks that support different media with different
capacity and geometry.
If there is more than one possible entry for this disk in the data base,


sformat asks:


"Select alternate disk type?


If the disk type menu is entered, all possible data base entries are displayed.
The current entry is marked with '*', the default entry is marked with '+'
and the entry most similar to the current disk is marked with '~'.
A matching factor is displayed in parenthesis. Higher values
are indicating a better match.

Read in label data

If the disk is already formatted,
sformat reads in the label and ask whether to remember this data.


Sformat asks:


"Ignore old disk Label?


I you confirm this question and reformat the disk, the old partitioning
information will be lost.

Disk Parameters Menu

If you want to modify some disk parameters answer the next question with 'y'.


Sformat asks:


"Modify Disk Geometry Parameters?


This enables to modify basic data on geometry, the interleaving factor and
the defect management system.
If you want to do spindle synchronization, activate it here.

Error Recovery

Error recovery parameters include read/write retry count and similar.


Sformat asks:


"Modify Error recovery Parameters?

Disconnect Parameter

Disconnect parameters are buffer full/empty ratio and bus inactivity limit.


Sformat asks:


"Modify Disconnect Parameters

Alternate Label

If you want to use an alternate label that may be in the data base
go into the next menu.


Sformat asks:


"Select alternate Label?


The current entry is marked with '*', the default entry is marked with '+'.

Logical Label Geometry

Sformat uses an abstract geometry in the label. This allows to have
one label for a group of disks. The label geometry menu allows to modify
this abstract geometry.


Sformat asks:


"Modify Label Geometry Parameters?

SCSI Parameters

This menu contains questions about command queuing, defect list format and
similar.
Some disks do not support the default block defect list format. Specify
another format in this case here. If the disk does not support the
SCSI write-verify command,
sformat allows to split this into a SCSI write and a SCSI verify command.
The data cannot be compared in this case.
If the disk type is generally flaky a data base entry can be set up to do
write verify as default after formatting.
If the disk will not handle 1000 blocks per verify command because
of a firmware bug, a smaller value may be specified here.


Sformat asks:


"Modify SCSI Parameters?

Grown Defect List

If a disk has not been formatted before or has been refurbished, you should
clear the old grown defect list to get a clean start. If the disk
has bad blocks,
sformat will find them after formatting while doing the surface analysis.
If the disk has known defects you should negotiate the next question to
keep the defect list.


Sformat asks:


"Clear old grown defect list?

Mode pages

If you want to format the disk, you need to set the mode pages before.


Sformat asks:


"Set mode pages (needed for format)?


However, if you do not want to format the disk, you may negotiate this
question and will be lead to the label modification menu.

Formatting the disk

The next question is the last one you will be asked before starting to format the disk.
If formatting has started, you will see the progress of this process
indicated in the used up percentage of the estimated time.


Sformat asks:


"Format Disk destroys all Data. Really?


If you only want to set the mode pages, you may this question with 'n'.

Creating and modifying the disk label

After the disk has been formatted or if the formatting has been denied,
the label menu is entered.


Sformat asks:


"Print disk label?


If you want to see the current layout of the disk label, enter 'y'.


Sformat asks:


"Modify disk label?


If you want to modify the disk label enter 'y'.

Inside the label modification menu

Sformat asks:


"Label: <Quantum XP34300> change ?


If you want to retain the old label name, enter <CR>, else
enter 'y'.
Sformat will ask for the new Label name.


Sformat asks:


"Enter disk label: Quantum XP34300


You are left in the tty line edit mode and may modify the input line (see
termio(7) manual page).


Sformat asks:


"Volume Name: <> change ?


If you want to retain the old label name, enter <CR>, else
enter 'y'.
Sformat will ask for the new Volume name.


Sformat asks:


"Change partition table?


If you want to change the partition table enter 'y'.


Sformat asks:


"Part     Tag Flag  Cylinders Startsec # of Sec      Size    Blocks


"0       root wm     0 -   30        0    67580     32.99MB (31/0/0)


"Change ?


If you want to modify this partition enter 'y', otherwise
enter <CR> until
sformat asks for the partition you want to change.


Sformat asks:


"Enter partition id Tag [root]:


Enter <CR> if the partition tag is ok for this partition, otherwise
enter '?' to get a list of valid partition tags or enter the new
partition tag.


Sformat asks:


"Enter partition permission Flags [wm]:


Enter <CR> if the partition flag is ok for this partition, otherwise
enter '?' to get a list of valid partition flags or enter the new
partition flag.


Sformat asks:


"Enter starting cylinder 0 (0 - 3851)/<cr>:


Enter <CR> if the starting cylinder is ok for this partition, otherwise
enter '?' to get a list of possible input.
XXX


Sformat asks:


"Enter number of blocks 67580, 31/0/0 (0 - 8395180)/<cr>:


Enter <CR> if the size is ok for this partition, otherwise
enter '?' to get a list of possible input.
XXX


Sformat asks:


"Part     Tag Flag  Cylinders Startsec # of Sec      Size    Blocks


"0       root wm     0 -   30        0    67580     32.99MB (31/0/0)


"Ok ?


Enter <CR> if you still want to modify the partition record.
You then will be asked again for all parameters of this partition.
Enter 'y' if this partition is now ok.


If all partitions are cycled through,
sformat will display the current label.


Sformat asks:


"Use this label?


If you enter 'y',
sformat will update the label on disk and go into the verify mode.
Anything else will put you into the label modification mode again.

Disk Verification

In disk verification mode,
sformat will do a surface analysis.
If a bad block is encountered,
sformat will reassign this bad block.
XXX

1)

One mapping area at the end of the disk. (tpz == 0)

2)

One mapping area per track.   (tpz == 1)

3)

One mapping area per cylinder.   (tpz == nhead)

4)

Some mapping areas on on the disk  (tpz > nhead)



If all the space in the defect spare locations above is used up,
there still may be an additional mapping area at the end of the disk.
This is controlled by the alternate tracks per volume parameter.



If your disk says
"no defect spare location,
you may be able to
get extra space by going into the disk parameter menu of sformat
and change a value. Note: some disks tell you that some of the
values are changeable (there is a range in parenthesis) but
actually ignore the new value. You will have to read the values
after formatting to see if the new parameters are in effect.

Print disk label?

If this question is answered with 'y', the label and partitioning info
will be displayed.

Modify disk label?

If this question is answered with 'y', the label modification menu will
be entered.

Label: <Toshiba 1015MB> change ?

If this question is answered with 'y', the name of the label nay be modified.

Volume Name: <5.3> change ?

If this question is answered with 'y', the system V volume name may be altered.

Change partition table?

If this question is answered with 'y', a partition menu will be displayed.

Use this label?

a I--/


b    /-----------/


c I----------------------------------------------------------------------I


d partition not defined


e             <--/


f                /--------/


g                                        <-------------------------------I


h                         /----------------------------------------------I


WARNING:


part 'e' has unaligned start.


part 'g' has unaligned start.


 

  


 Used symbols:


  I


 Used to mark the start end the end of the disk (no error).


 
 
  X


 Partition starts before zero or exceeds end of disk.


 
 
  /


 Partition has an adjacent start or end with another 


partition (no error).


 
 
  +


 Two or mode partitions have the start or the end at the same position


on the disk but no other partition connects to this point.


This is an error that indicates that there may be unused space on


the disk.


 
 
  <


 This partition does not connect to another partition on it's


beginning.


This is an error that indicates that there may be unused space on


the disk.


 
 
  >


 This partition does not connect to another partition on it's


end.


This is an error that indicates that there may be unused space on


the disk.


 
 
  *


 Internal error in the check routines (should never happen).


 

  


 Errors:


 
 
  ends behind lncyl


 Partition is bigger than possible.


 
 
  One or more parts are not within range of part 'c'!


 Partition 'c' (2) should be the whole disk.


This warning indicates a disk that deviates from this rule.


 

  


 Warnings:


 
 
  unaligned start


 The partition starts not in conjunction to another partition.


 
 
  unaligned end


 The partition ends not in conjunction to another partition.


 
 
  space before start


 There is no partition that uses the space between


the beginning of the disk and the beginning of


this partition.


 
 
  space after end


 There is no partition that uses the space between


the end of this partition and the end of the disk.





 
 

Jorg Schilling
Seestr. 110
D-13353 Berlin
Germany