Summary: Hard disk errors on a 3b1; HwNote13

[Brant Cheikes]

Let me begin with a sincere and appreciative public THANK YOU! to John
Milton for his lengthy, informative, and authoritative discussion of
UNIXpc hard disk error messages and their interpretation.  Thanks are
owed as well to the irrepressible Lenny Tropiano for a private
communique covering mostly the same territory.  As David Sueme so
eloquently put it, whatever we're paying these folks ain't enough.

Nonetheless, I was slightly puzzled by John's rather inconclusive
conclusion:

>Ahh! Wouldn't you know it! I've got news stomping on my soft blocks!

After walking thru a particular error message, tracking it down to a
particular file and so forth, he makes the above offhand comment about
"soft blocks," then proceeds to change the subject.

So, if I may be so bold as to inquire further, what pray tell are
"soft blocks?"  John's treatment suggests that they need inspire only
the mildest concern.  Yet in my case, having a new "soft block" error
logged almost on a daily basis, that would seem inappropriate.
Comments, John?
-- 
Brant Cheikes
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Computer and Information Science
brant at manta.pha.pa.us, brant at linc.cis.upenn.edu, bpa!manta!brant