[K12OSN] RAID Question

[Les Mikesell]

Julius Szelagiewicz wrote:
>
>>> After that I test
>>> the disk controller  by formatting them...
>> This may be a superstition going back to the old days of having tracking
>> information laid down in the formatting step - and controllers with
>> slight differences, but I always do a low-level format on scsi drives
>> when I move them to a machine with a different controller type or if I
>> don't know where they were before.  It probably really isn't necessary
>> any more but it does give the drive a chance to remap any questionable
>> blocks transparently.  With IDE and SATA, I'm not sure if this is even
>> possible.
>>
>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
>> For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>
>>
> Yes, it is possible. Spinrite from Gibson Research is an unbelievably good
> product. I've been using it in its evolving incantations forever (since my
> first IBM PC XT) and it works. It is especially good at fixing track
> layout to mach the drift of the heads. Worth the money and then some.
> julius

But is that relevant any more?  I thought current drives had permanent 
servo tracks embedded separately from the data and the heads followed 
them instead of having their own stepper concept.  If you have to spend 
money, I'm inclined to just toss the old questionable stuff and replace 
it since things have gotten so much better in the last few years.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com