type erasureTestSetup struct {
	dataBlocks   int
	parityBlocks int
	blockSize    int64
	diskPaths    []string
	disks        []StorageAPI
}

// Returns an initialized setup for erasure tests.
func newErasureTestSetup(tb testing.TB, dataBlocks int, parityBlocks int, blockSize int64) (*erasureTestSetup, error) {
	diskPaths := make([]string, dataBlocks+parityBlocks)
	disks := make([]StorageAPI, len(diskPaths))
	var err error

			// test case sanity check
			t.Fatalf("Test %d: Bad test case - number of stale drives cannot be less than number of badstale drives", i)
		}

		// create some test data
		setup, err := newErasureTestSetup(t, test.dataBlocks, test.disks-test.dataBlocks, test.blocksize)
		if err != nil {
			t.Fatalf("Test %d: failed to setup Erasure environment: %v", i, err)
		}
		disks := setup.disks