OpenBSD downgrades HDD transfer mode, I want to upgrade it WITHOUT BOOTING


 
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Operating Systems BSD OpenBSD downgrades HDD transfer mode, I want to upgrade it WITHOUT BOOTING
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Old 02-16-2009
OpenBSD downgrades HDD transfer mode, I want to upgrade it WITHOUT BOOTING

Hi,

I have a crappy hard disk and am trying to back up stuff from it onto my newer hopefully less crappy disk. There are dead sectors on the disk and some files can't be read (at all) so OpenBSD downgrades the transfer mode down until PIO mode 4. I noticed the transfer speed slowing down extremely, and I would guess it's due to these downgrades, which are done when reading certain blocks continuously produces errors. But there are files on the disk that ARE READABLE and I don't want to reboot every time I end up on a trashed area on the disk, since the rest is fine and can be read in Ultra-DMA mode 5.

I looked it up a bit, and found out that apparently you can change device flags - including the transfer modes - with the config/UKC (User Kernel Config) utility, but AFAIK that is for rewriting the kernel image without recompiling. When OpenBSD downgrades the DMA modes, it's obviously doing something else, and I just need to do the reverse operation. The point being: if it can be downgraded without booting, it can be changed, and therefore upgraded without booting.

Anyone know how to upgrade from PIO4 without a reboot?
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DISKTAB(5)						      BSD File Formats Manual							DISKTAB(5)

NAME
disktab -- disk description file SYNOPSIS
#include <disktab.h> DESCRIPTION
disktab is a simple database which describes disk geometries and disk partition characteristics. It is used to initialize the disk label on the disk. The format is patterned after the termcap(5) terminal data base. Entries in disktab consist of a number of `:' separated fields. The first entry for each disk gives the names which are known for the disk, separated by `|' characters. The last name given should be a long name fully identifying the disk. The following list indicates the normal values stored for each disk entry. Name Type Description ty str Type of disk (e.g. removable, winchester) dt str Type of controller (e.g. SMD, ESDI, floppy) ns num Number of sectors per track nt num Number of tracks per cylinder nc num Total number of cylinders on the disk sc num Number of sectors per cylinder, ns*nt default su num Number of sectors per unit, sc*nc default se num Sector size in bytes, DEV_BSIZE default sf bool Controller supports bad144-style bad sector forwarding rm num Rotation speed, rpm, 3600 default sk num Sector skew per track, default 0 cs num Sector skew per cylinder, default 0 hs num Headswitch time, usec, default 0 ts num One-cylinder seek time, usec, default 0 il num Sector interleave (n:1), 1 default d[0-4] num Drive-type-dependent parameters bs num Boot block size, default BBSIZE sb num Superblock size, default SBSIZE ba num Block size for partition `a' (bytes) bd num Block size for partition `d' (bytes) be num Block size for partition `e' (bytes) bf num Block size for partition `f' (bytes) bg num Block size for partition `g' (bytes) bh num Block size for partition `h' (bytes) fa num Fragment size for partition `a' (bytes) fd num Fragment size for partition `d' (bytes) fe num Fragment size for partition `e' (bytes) ff num Fragment size for partition `f' (bytes) fg num Fragment size for partition `g' (bytes) fh num Fragment size for partition `h' (bytes) oa num Offset of partition `a' in sectors ob num Offset of partition `b' in sectors oc num Offset of partition `c' in sectors od num Offset of partition `d' in sectors oe num Offset of partition `e' in sectors of num Offset of partition `f' in sectors og num Offset of partition `g' in sectors oh num Offset of partition `h' in sectors pa num Size of partition `a' in sectors pb num Size of partition `b' in sectors pc num Size of partition `c' in sectors pd num Size of partition `d' in sectors pe num Size of partition `e' in sectors pf num Size of partition `f' in sectors pg num Size of partition `g' in sectors ph num Size of partition `h' in sectors ta str Partition type of partition `a' (4.2BSD filesystem, swap, etc) tb str Partition type of partition `b' tc str Partition type of partition `c' td str Partition type of partition `d' te str Partition type of partition `e' tf str Partition type of partition `f' tg str Partition type of partition `g' th str Partition type of partition `h' FILES
/etc/disktab SEE ALSO
getdiskbyname(3), disklabel(5), disklabel(8), newfs(8) HISTORY
The disktab description file appeared in 4.2BSD. BSD
June 5, 1993 BSD