RA81 power fail problems

[Peter Gross]

We have had a repeated problem with one of our RA81's.  Whenever we
have a power outage, the formatting information at the beginning of
one file system somehow gets trashed.  Our DEC CE claims that unlike
older SMD disks, the formatter works only on the entire pack.
So each time this happens, the whole disk has to be reformatted and
we have to restore from backup.  It's getting to be a real drag.
It is always the same file system on the same drive.
Couple of questions:
1.  Since this always happens only on one of four RA81's, should we
    expect that there is some kind of hardware problem in the drive
    logic and ask that it be replaced?
2.  Is it true that the RA81 diagnostics can only format the entire disk,
    not selected portions?

Please reply by mail....

--peter gross
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