[Beowulf] instances where a failed storage block is not all zero?

[David Mathog]

With "modern" hardware are there currently any notable instances where a
failed read of a hardware storage area block results in that missing
data being filled in with something other than null bytes?   For
instance, if a disk swapped a bad block out of the inside of a file, or
a region of a DVD goes bad.  (Assuming that the software reading it can
even go on beyond the failure, which is often not possible, for instance
on many tapes.)  

I know for instance that when reading from damaged media

  dd conv=sync,noerror

will fill in with null bytes, but there is a lot of other software out
there...

Thanks,

David Mathog
mathog at caltech.edu
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech
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