badblocks
Hurricane Electric Internet Services
NAME
badblocks - search a device for bad blocks
SYNOPSIS
badblocks [ -b block-size ] [ -o output_file ] [ -v ] [ -w
] device blocks-count
DESCRIPTION
badblocks is used to search for bad blocks on a device
(usually a disk partition).
device is the special file corresponding to the device
(e.g /dev/hdXX).
blocks-count is the number of blocks on the device.
OPTIONS
-b block-size
Specify the size of blocks in bytes.
-o output_file
Write the list of bad blocks to the specified file.
Without this option, badblocks displays the list on
its standard output.
-v Verbose mode.
-w Use write-mode test. With this option, badblocks
scans for bad blocks by writing some patterns
(0xaa, 0x55, 0xff, 0x00) on every block of the
device, reading every block and comparing the con-
tents.
WARNING
Never use the `-w' option on an device containing an
existing file system. This option erases data!
AUTHOR
badblocks has been written by Remy Card
<card@masi.ibp.fr>, the developer and maintainer of the
ext2 fs.
BUGS
I had no chance to make reals tests of this program since
I use IDE drives which remap bad blocks. I only made some
tests on floppies.
AVAILABILITY
badblocks is available for anonymous ftp from ftp.ibp.fr
and tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/packages/ext2fs.
SEE ALSO
e2fsck(8), mke2fs(8)
Hurricane Electric Internet Services
Copyright (C) 1998
Hurricane Electric.
All Rights Reserved.