sense key(0x4): hardware error, error code (0

[-David C. Kovar]

  A 327MB disk on a Sun 386i first started reporting errors of this
nature about two weeks ago:

Apr 25 08:51:16 jackson sd2g:  read retry,  blk 6744  (abs blk 17508)
Apr 25 08:51:16 jackson        sense key(0x4): hardware error,  error code(0x44): unknown error
Apr 25 08:52:23 jackson sd2a:  read retry,  blk 48  (abs blk 48)
Apr 25 08:52:23 jackson        sense key(0x4): hardware error,  error code(0x44): unknown error
Apr 25 08:53:54 jackson sd2b:  write retry,  blk 2632  (abs blk 58522)
Apr 25 08:53:54 jackson        sense key(0x4): hardware error,  error code(0x44): unknown error
Apr 25 08:54:58 jackson sd2a:  write retry,  blk 16  (abs blk 16)
Apr 25 08:54:58 jackson        sense key(0x4): hardware error,  error code(0x44): unknown error
Apr 25 08:56:24 jackson sd2a:  read retry,  blk 56  (abs blk 56)
Apr 25 08:56:24 jackson        sense key(0x4): hardware error,  error code(0x44): unknown error

I moved everything off of this disk onto a different machine. Just today,
the same sort of errors started appearing. Hardware diagnostics report
no errors. Letting the machine sit for a little while sometimes clears
the error up. While the console is reporting this message you can hear
a loud "ping" from the drive, perhaps the head bouncing? Worse still,
our hardware contract expired and we're having a difficult time getting
a new one at present.

Could someone explain the meaning of the error and, more important,
how we might fix it? Through weird circumstances I have a number of
91MB disks I can use instead of the 327MBs but I'd prefer to fix what
we have first.

Thanks, in advance, for any suggestions.

- -David C. Kovar
	Technical Consultant			ARPA: kovar at husc4.harvard.edu
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