Hugh Cruickshank, you are not mistaken. SCSI drives do keep bad block information on the drive. I've also been using this for YEARS on SGI's under IRIX. Under IRIX, the command `fx' is used to partition SCSI drives, exercise them, format them (which is something one never does to SCSI drives), spare out bad blocks, list the bad block table, etc., etc.. -- Brent L. Bates (UNIX Sys. Admin.) M.S. 912 Phone:(757) 865-1400, x204 NASA Langley Research Center FAX:(757) 865-8177 Hampton, Virginia 23681-0001 Email: B.L.BATES at larc.nasa.gov http://www.vigyan.com/~blbates/