>> Full gory details: I am having problems with some new disks, in that sectors
>> are going bad. I kind of didn't expect this on `new' disks, but maybe I'm
>> just not used to having so many sectors !
>> Another disk works fine for a while, then reports: SCSI disk error :
>> host 1 channel 0 id 3 lun 0 return code = 28000002 [valid=0] Info
>> fld=0xbe7e, Current sd08:30: sense key Hardware Error Additional
>> sense indicates Mechanical positioning error scsidisk I/O error: dev
>> 08:30, sector 48766
>> until I power cycle it, at which point it works
>> just fine. Is this a common failure mode ?
> Common failure modes with SCSI disks are cables longer than specified
> (especially with a bunch of disks like in a RAID), improper
> termination and intermittant connecting connectors.
Sure, but under those will give errors indicating problems communicating
between the CPU controller and the SCSI device.
However, both my problems ("Unrecovered read error" and "Mechanical positioning
error") suggest to me that the communications between CPU controller and the
disk are working just fine, and that the disk is reporting problems reading
off the platter and positioning the read head.
I can't see how these can be cabling problems ...
