What is 'SMALL DISK ERROR' ?

[elsen at esat.kuleuven.ac.be]

            Recently I have been getting the following errorlog entries :
            ( It happens a couple of times each day )

						  uerf version 3.1-003 (113)


********************************* ENTRY     1. *********************************

----- EVENT INFORMATION -----

EVENT CLASS                             ERROR EVENT 
OS EVENT TYPE                  102.     DISK ERROR 
SEQUENCE NUMBER                 12.
OPERATING SYSTEM                        ULTRIX 32 
OCCURRED/LOGGED ON                      Fri Feb 24 05:37:53 1989 WET
OCCURRED ON SYSTEM                      khvive1
SYSTEM ID                 x08000000
SYSTYPE REG.              x01010000
                                        FIRMWARE REV = 1.
PROCESSOR TYPE                          KA630 

----- UNIT INFORMATION -----

UNIT CLASS                              DSA DISK 
UNIT TYPE                               RD54 
CONTROLLER NO.                   0.
UNIT NO.                         0.
ERROR SYNDROME                          SMALL DISK ERROR 
CYLINDER                       574.

  -------------------------- 
   
    What kind of action should I undertake with respect to this ?
    (I am kind of worried since this beasty is the system disk of
my VAXstation II/GPX (it contains /  and /usr)).I have also noted that
the same CYLINDER is always involved.

    What does 'SMALL DISK ERROR' mean ? Does it mean that a correctable
    ECC error has occurred ?
    Or is it possible that an uncorrectable ECC with Bad Block Replacement
    has occurred ? (I prefer the first one...)

    This leads me to further questions (since I am relatively new with
    respect to Ultrix) :
    Does Ultrix (3.1) support online Bad Block Replacement ?
    If so then why is the program 'radisk' still needed ?


                          Thanks for all your clarifications,

-- 


  Marc Elsen (System Manager/Software Engineer)
  Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  Dep. E.S.A.T.
  Kard. Mercierlaan 94
  3030 HEVERLEE
  Belgium
              tel. 32(0)16220931(ext. 1080)

               EMAIL : elsen at esat.kuleuven.ac.be

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