| .\" -*- nroff -*- |
| .TH BADBLOCKS 8 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@" |
| .SH NAME |
| badblocks \- search a device for bad blocks |
| .SH SYNOPSIS |
| .B badblocks |
| [ |
| .B \-b |
| block-size |
| ] |
| [ |
| .B \-o |
| output_file |
| ] |
| [ |
| .B \-s |
| ] |
| [ |
| .B \-v |
| ] |
| [ |
| .B \-w |
| ] |
| device |
| blocks-count [ start-block ] |
| .SH DESCRIPTION |
| .B badblocks |
| is used to search for bad blocks on a device (usually a disk partition). |
| .br |
| .I device |
| is the special file corresponding to the device (e.g /dev/hdXX). |
| .br |
| .I blocks-count |
| is the number of blocks on the device. |
| .SH OPTIONS |
| .TP |
| .I -b block-size |
| Specify the size of blocks in bytes. |
| .TP |
| .I -o output_file |
| Write the list of bad blocks to the specified file. Without this option, |
| .B badblocks |
| displays the list on its standard output. The format of this file is suitable |
| for use by the -l option in |
| .BR e2fsck (8) |
| or |
| .BR mke2fs (8). |
| .TP |
| .I -s |
| Show the progress of the scan by writing out the block numbers as they |
| are checked. |
| .TP |
| .I -v |
| Verbose mode. |
| .TP |
| .I -w |
| Use write-mode test. With this option, |
| .B badblocks |
| scans for bad blocks by writing some patterns (0xaa, 0x55, 0xff, 0x00) on |
| every block of the device, reading every block and comparing the contents. |
| .SH WARNING |
| Never use the `-w' option on an device containing an existing file system. |
| This option erases data! |
| .SH AUTHOR |
| .B badblocks |
| was written by Remy Card <card@masi.ibp.fr>, the developer and maintainer |
| of the ext2 fs. |
| .SH BUGS |
| I had no chance to make real tests of this program since I use IDE drives, |
| which remap bad blocks. I only made some tests on floppies. |
| .SH AVAILABILITY |
| .B badblocks |
| is part of the e2fsprogs package and is available for anonymous |
| ftp from tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/packages/ext2fs. |
| .SH SEE ALSO |
| .BR e2fsck (8), |
| .BR mke2fs (8) |