IBM RS/6000 44P - Manual (Page 151)

For a newly installed drive, you can ensure that all blocks on the drive are
overwritten with your pattern when you use the following procedure:
1. Format the drive.
2. Check the defect MAP (Maintenance Analysis Procedure) by running the Erase
Disk selection.
Note: If you use the Format and Certify option, there may be some blocks which
get placed into the grown defect MAP.
3. If there are bad blocks in the defect MAP, record the information presented and
ensure that this information is kept with the drive. This data is used when the
drive is to be overwritten.
4. Use the drive as you would normally.
5. When the drive is no longer needed and is to be erased, run the same version of
the Erase Disk selection that was used in step 2.
Note: Using the same version of the service aid is only critical if there were any
bad blocks found in step 3.
6. Compare the bad blocks which were recorded with the drive in step 3 with those
that now appear in the grown defect MAP.
Note: If there are differences between the saved data and the newly obtained
data, then all sectors on this drive cannot be overwritten. The new bad
blocks are not overwritten.
7. If the bad block list is the same, continue running the service aid to overwrite the
disk with the chosen pattern(s).
This task can be run directly from the AIX command line. The syntax of the command is
as follows:
diag -c -d deviceName -T "format [-s* fmtcert | erase -a {read |
write}] [-F]"
Flag Description
fmtcert Formats and certifies the disk.
*
Available in no-console mode only.
-F Force flag. Forces disk erasure even if all blocks cannot be erased due to
errors accessing grown defect map.
Note: Erase option in command line mode uses default values. To selectively read or
write, use the diag command in console mode.
Hardfile Attached to PCI SCSI RAID Adapter
This function formats the physical disks attached to a PCI SCSI RAID adapter. This
task can be run directly from the AIX command line. The syntax of the command is as
follows:
diag -c -d RAID adapterName -T "format {-l chId | -A }"
Flag Description
-l Physical disk channel/ID (An example of physical disk channel/ID is 27, where
the channel is 2 and the ID is 7.)
-A All disks
Chapter 6. Introducing Tasks and Service Aids 133