Subject: scsi disk formatter etc
To: None <current-users@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Ian Dall <>
List: current-users
Date: 01/30/1997 15:58:38
I have written a program to format and perform surface analysis and
remapping of blocks on scsi disks. For want of a better idea, I have
called it sdd (Scsi Disk Doctor).

The formatting capability is fairly basic, but the surface analysis is
reasonably complete. It is driven from a home grown menue interface.
It would be possible to make a much nicer curses or ncurses based
interface but I wanted to keep the executeable small so it could be
put on a floppy based installation/repair disk.

Much more could be added. For example, you can't currently vary the
format parameters using mode select. The interesting thing about
developing this program is I can't really test it properly anymore
since I have fixed the disk! I guess I no longer have the incentive to
do a lot on it either, but I can confirm that there is at least some
useful functionality there. Think of it as version 0.1.

So, what to do with it now? I would like to make it available for
wider use as I don't think there is currently anything else which
provides this functionality. I don't have access to a publicly
accessable ftp server. Can it be made part of NetBSD or else is there
a "contrib" area it could go in?