[continued from previous message]   
      
   a re-scan would uncover lots of good blocks, if only I could   
   reset the automatic sparing system". In my tests, what I discovered   
   at the time, is no, resetting any automatic sparing would   
   achieve nothing. Still, this is a natural hypothesis for users   
   to reach, that if only they could give the automatic sparing   
   a whack upside the head, their drive would be "rendered new again".   
   It's not true. The drive does make good, high quality determinations   
   of its bad blocks. When it tells you a block is bad, it's bad.   
   And reproducibly so. These were the first full height 5MB and   
   10MB Seagate consumer drives (complete with floppy-like head movement   
   and stepper motors for driving the head in and out instead of a   
   voice coil).   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)