V/386 + 630Mb ESDI = Trouble?

[Larry Jones]

In article <781 at sdrc.UUCP>, I wrote:
> I've formatted the drive, partitioned it, and made file systems
> without any apparent trouble, but now when I run fsck on the file
> systems, I get non-repeatable results.  Once it will say the file
> system is fine, next time there's a bad free list, next time it's
> fine again.  Similarly, sometimes an fsck on the raw device will
> be OK, but when run on the block device there's errors or vice
> versa.

Well, I've just spent all weekend trying various experiments.  I
created file systems and populated them from a backup tape.  The
disk is, however, basically unusable; it will boot, but I get all
kinds of errors and fsck is very unhappy with it.  HOWEVER, if I
boot Bell Tech unix from a floppy and run their fsck, all is
well.  Mount the root partition and run uport's fsck and it now
reports all is well, too.

So, it is obviously a problem somewhere in the kernel -- the hd
driver, the file system code, or ???.  Would one of you nice
people with the BBS disks check to see if there's anything in the
fixes section that looks like it might apply (I ordered them
months ago, but they never showed up!).  Otherwise, it looks like
it's time to call Bell Tech and ISC.
----
Larry Jones                         UUCP: uunet!sdrc!scjones
SDRC                                      scjones at SDRC.UU.NET
2000 Eastman Dr.                    BIX:  ltl
Milford, OH  45150-2789             AT&T: (513) 576-2070
"I have plenty of good sense.  I just choose to ignore it."
-Calvin