"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...


O.K. THe P-list must be what the Hitachi manual for the drives
describes as "skip"s. Each sector has information to move to the
next
*good* sector, skipping over the intermediate bad ones.

The "G-list" is probably what Sun reserves two cylinders at the
end of the drive for -- a pool of spare sectors to use as needed to
replace sectors which go bad over time.

This Russian knows his stuff!
http://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_Tracks_and_Zones.html

There's no way that I can use the Windows format to fix this,
however. the only systems which I Have with the FC-AL drive slots
are
equipped with UltraSPARC CPUs, which Windows has no idea what to do
with. :-(


Here is a good start for you.
http://code.duffy.jp/hard-drive-benchmark-for-linux/

I think the stalactites indicate G-list sectors that the head has to
move to before reading. The read block size affects the graph
sharpness, like the bandwidth controls on a spectrum analyzer. In
Windows the boot drive will show non-repeating spurious spikes when
the OS kernel preempts the drive.

It's typical for a hard drive to slow down considerably toward the
end, and a CD or DVD drive to ramp up. DVD-DLs give a peaked-roof
graph.
jsw