Re:

> We just finished replacing a disk which was "heading south".  So it was
> curious to see Kenneth's comment concerning the replacement of a disk.  We
> thought we'd be able to move all the files, which had any extents on the bad
> disk, to other disks , using MPEX's ALTFILE command with the
> 'ONDEVICE(ldev);DEV=' option.  Well it moved all the files....we think.  I
> say  that because the DISCFREE command on the flaky disk indicated that
> space was being used for something, but we couldn't see that there were any
> files still there.
>
> Anyway, after HP installed a new(reconditioned?) disk, we were able to boot
> the box, but the new drive was classified as "unknown"  After countless
> tries with volutil, we cried 'uncle' and called the reponse center.  We were
> told to slap the SLT into the tape drive and perform an install.  As I
> compose this message, we're restoring files from a full backup tape.

> Here's my question: Is there a clean way to clear a disk of data, replace
> it, then put the data back on without having to go through these
> calistenics?

YES!

As I posted before, there are two basic methods:

   1) (free)

      Use the COPYUTIL (sp?) in the offline ODE diagnostic tool.

      HP support should have helped you with that.  You could have copied
      the failing drive to a new drive (same size!) and completely avoided
      the install.  Note: you might have had to do disk -> tape -> disk

   2) <plug>
      De-Frag/X, from Lund Performance Solutions, has a CLONE command that
      can clone a disk drive.  This would require cabling the new drive
      (preferably the same size!) to the 3000 at the same time as the old
      drive is on the machine, *and* configuring an ldev for it.  The CLONE
      command then does raw disk copies, while the system is up, to the new
      drive.  When the copy is complete, you power the machine off (contact
      Lund for precise instructions and reasons), uncable the old drive,
      and boot up.  Done.  Somewhat risky in theory (which is why we strongly
      suggest a full backup first!), but 100% successful in the field, so far.
      </plug>

and, a third possibility:

   3) (free)

      Move the failing drive to another machine (3000 or Unix) and copy it
      (sector-by-sector) to a new drive (of the same size) with some tool
      or other (e.g., dd with Unix), then move it back to the 3000.

Stan Sieler
[log in to unmask]