On Tue, 13 Apr 1999, Michael G. Schabert wrote:

> Wilko suggested that I try reformatting the HD to see if it could be fixed
> by just updating the grown defects list...I didn't know how to do this
> under NetBSD (is there a way?). I attached the drive to my Mac to use FWB's
> hard disk toolkit to do a media scan...my Mac wouldn't even boot with the
> drive attached...it gave the sad mac

The Mac won't boot if there's a drive attached with a corrupted partition
table. If you want to try to format it from within MacOS, you should
attach it after the Mac boots, and after you've launched FWB tools. That
way, if the scsi bus locks, you can use the application to reset it.

> sd0 at scsibus0 targ 2 lun 0: <QUANTUM, FIREBALL1080S, 1Q08> SCSI2 0/direct
> fixed
> sd0(ncr0:2:0): 10.0 MB/s (100 ns, offset 8)
> sd0: 1042MB, 3835 cyl, 4 head, 139 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 2134305 sectors
> probe(ncr0:4:0):  Check Condition on CDB: 0x00 00 00 00 00 00
>     SENSE KEY:  Media Error
>      ASC/ASCQ:  Medium Format Corrupted

That last message is pretty unambiguous. Was a format-in-progress aborted?
In that case, a low-level format to completion may be all it needs.
Otherwise, it doesn't look good, but it's still worth a try. I've had one
of those Quantum Fireball's on my Quadra 630 for about 5 years now. With
all the grinding and scraping noises it makes, I've expected it fail any
day now, but that's been going on for about 4 years running.

I'm thinking this thread could be of greater interest to mac68k users, so
I'm taking the liberty of cross-posting there. I suggest removing
port-alpha from the address list for follow-ups.