rdg@allegra.UUCP (Ron Gordon) (09/21/85)
when ms-dos has a problem reading a sector from a floppy or from the hard disk, it retries up to 5 times. trouble is, it does not warn you when it recovers after, say, 3 or 4 attempts. one would like to know when this is going on, since it is an early warning of disk problems. one of the pc magazines published a short article with code to patch ms-dos so that it would report as it retried disk operations. can anyone provide a pointer to the article? has anyone actually implemented this? experience? thanks, -ron gordon (allegra!rdg)
schuler@gondor.UUCP (David W. Schuler) (09/25/85)
> when ms-dos has a problem reading a sector from a floppy or from > the hard disk, it retries up to 5 times. trouble is, it does not > warn you when it recovers after, say, 3 or 4 attempts. one would > like to know when this is going on, since it is an early warning > of disk problems. > > one of the pc magazines published a short article with code to patch > ms-dos so that it would report as it retried disk operations. > can anyone provide a pointer to the article? has anyone actually > implemented this? experience? thanks, -ron gordon (allegra!rdg) I would also like a copy E-mail or post to net. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ David W. Schuler {akgua,allegra,ihnp4}!psuvax1!psuvaxg!schuler Penn State University schuler@psuvax1.bitnet +--+ +--+ + + Home of the 1982 | | | | | 1985 Season 2-0 National Champion +--+ +--+ | | (so far) Nittany Lions | | | | + +--+ +--+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "...on the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own rear." - Montaigne
ejb@think.ARPA (Erik Bailey) (09/28/85)
In article <1816@gondor.UUCP> schuler@gondor.UUCP (David W. Schuler) writes: >> when ms-dos has a problem reading a sector from a floppy or from >> the hard disk, it retries up to 5 times. trouble is, it does not >> warn you when it recovers after, say, 3 or 4 attempts. one would >> like to know when this is going on, since it is an early warning >> of disk problems. >> >> one of the pc magazines published a short article with code to patch >> ms-dos so that it would report as it retried disk operations. >> can anyone provide a pointer to the article? has anyone actually >> implemented this? experience? thanks, -ron gordon (allegra!rdg) > >I would also like a copy E-mail or post to net. > >-- The article you are talking about (I think) is that in Volume 4, No. 12 (June 11, 1985) of PC Magazine. It is in the PROGRAMMING column on p. 263. The program is called DSKWATCH, and attaches itself to DOS, intercepting all disk errors, even those that don't make it to the Abort, Retry... thing (that is after 5 errors). The article gives an extensive description of the program, and disk errors in general. I have been using the program ever since I got the magazine in the mail, and it works beuatifully! I really don't known what I did without it! It tells you the following errors (w/ brief blurb by me): NO RESPONSE - no signals recieved from drive (ie door open) FAILED SEEK - something interfered w/ locating data on disk NEC ERROR - PC has recieved bad data from NEC disk controller. bad. BAD CRC SEEN - Bad CRC found DMA OVERRUN - PC was so busy that it denied NEC chip access to data IMPOS SECTOR - Tried to read/write sector that ain't there NO ADDR MARK - NEC lost its place W. PROTECTED - Write protected disk ERR UNKNOWN - Bad news. No-one knows what the heck is going on. Start looking for your service contract... Well, hope this helps... --ERIK. PS - if you need source, I will post it.
ejb@think.ARPA (Erik Bailey) (10/03/85)
In article <2892@think.ARPA> ejb@think.UUCP (Erik Bailey) writes: >In article <1816@gondor.UUCP> schuler@gondor.UUCP (David W. Schuler) writes: >>> when ms-dos has a problem reading a sector from a floppy or from >>> the hard disk, it retries up to 5 times. trouble is, it does not >>> warn you when it recovers after, say, 3 or 4 attempts. one would >>> like to know when this is going on, since it is an early warning >>> of disk problems. >>> >>> one of the pc magazines published a short article with code to patch >>> ms-dos so that it would report as it retried disk operations. >>> can anyone provide a pointer to the article? has anyone actually >>> implemented this? experience? thanks, -ron gordon (allegra!rdg) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- >The article you are talking about (I think) is that in Volume 4, No. 12 >(June 11, 1985) of PC Magazine. It is in the PROGRAMMING column on p. >263. The program is called DSKWATCH, and attaches itself to DOS, >intercepting all disk errors, even those that don't make it to the >Abort, Retry... thing (that is after 5 errors). The article gives an >extensive description of the program, and disk errors in general. I have >been using the program ever since I got the magazine in the mail, and it >works beuatifully! I really don't known what I did without it! It tells >you the following errors (w/ brief blurb by me): > >NO RESPONSE - no signals recieved from drive (ie door open) >FAILED SEEK - something interfered w/ locating data on disk >NEC ERROR - PC has recieved bad data from NEC disk controller. bad. >BAD CRC SEEN - Bad CRC found >DMA OVERRUN - PC was so busy that it denied NEC chip access to data >IMPOS SECTOR - Tried to read/write sector that ain't there >NO ADDR MARK - NEC lost its place >W. PROTECTED - Write protected disk >ERR UNKNOWN - Bad news. No-one knows what the heck is going on. Start > looking for your service contract... > >Well, hope this helps... --ERIK. > >PS - if you need source, I will post it. Ok, looks like I'll have to eat my words here... response has been rather greater than I anticipated, so it looks like I'll have to get my act together, and find the source. HOWEVER - this may take awhile. I REFUSE to type in the listing in PC magazine, so the way I'd get it is through PC MAg's RBBS (PC-IRS [Interactive Reader Service]). IF you can get it from there, great. But it might take me a while to grab it, as I call BBS's VERY rarely. BUT - I *WILL* do it. Don't flame at me! BTW - the number to the BBS is (212) 696-0360. It runs standard RBBS-PC, although the msg section is disabled. Hope this helps all you disk-error-prone-and-or-paranoid-and-or-anything-else-having-to-do-with-disks people! And remember - I WILL post the source...eventually. Good luck. --Erik Bailey PS - I have no connection with PC Magazine; just a happy subscriber.
gbs@voder.UUCP (George Smith) (10/04/85)
> > > >PS - if you need source, I will post it. > > ...so the way I'd get it is > through PC MAg's RBBS (PC-IRS [Interactive Reader Service]). IF you can > get it from there, great. But it might take me a while to grab it... > > --Erik Bailey First of all, I must *comment* on Erik's offer to post the source without having a machine readable copy of it. This is not a flame, it is just an expression of extreme (and possibly naive) disbelief that someone would make this offer and not be able to fulfill it. Please people, don't offer to post source when you don't have it. Second, I have tried calling the Interactive Reader Service on and off for the last two months and have never gotten anything but a busy signal. I have tried at all hours of the day and night without success. So good luck, Erik; trying to get the source to fulfill your promise to the net will be your punishment for making a promise that you couldn't keep. -- George B. Smith National Semiconductor ...!{ihnp4!nsc | decvax!decwrl!nsc | ucbvax}!voder!gbs
john@moncol.UUCP (John Ruschmeyer) (10/05/85)
]From: ejb@think.ARPA (Erik Bailey) ]Message-ID: <2943@think.ARPA> ]Organization: Thinking Machines, Cambridge, MA ] ]>The article you are talking about (I think) is that in Volume 4, No. 12 ]>(June 11, 1985) of PC Magazine. It is in the PROGRAMMING column on p. ]>263. The program is called DSKWATCH, and attaches itself to DOS, ]>intercepting all disk errors, even those that don't make it to the ]>Abort, Retry... thing (that is after 5 errors). The article gives an ]>extensive description of the program, and disk errors in general. I have ]>been using the program ever since I got the magazine in the mail, and it ]>works beuatifully! I really don't known what I did without it! It tells ]>you the following errors (w/ brief blurb by me): ]> ]>NO RESPONSE - no signals recieved from drive (ie door open) ]>FAILED SEEK - something interfered w/ locating data on disk ]>NEC ERROR - PC has recieved bad data from NEC disk controller. bad. ]>BAD CRC SEEN - Bad CRC found ]>DMA OVERRUN - PC was so busy that it denied NEC chip access to data ]>IMPOS SECTOR - Tried to read/write sector that ain't there ]>NO ADDR MARK - NEC lost its place ]>W. PROTECTED - Write protected disk ]>ERR UNKNOWN - Bad news. No-one knows what the heck is going on. Start ]> looking for your service contract... ]> ]>Well, hope this helps... --ERIK. Well, here it is. It is a BASIC program which builds a file called DSKWATCH.COM- a little terminate-and-stay-resident program (probably best run from autoexec.bat.) NOTE: This is not a shell archive. ============================== CUT HERE ==================================== 5 'Disk watch 10 DIM E$(10):E$(1)="Disk Error: " 20 'Make sure each of the following messages has 12 characters total. 30 E$(2)="No Response ":E$(3)="Failed Seek ":E$(4)="NEC Error " 40 E$(5)="Bad CRC Seen":E$(6)="DMA Overrun ":E$(7)="Impos Sector" 50 E$(8)="No Addr Mark":E$(9)="W. Protected":E$(10)="Err Unknown " 60 OPEN "DSKWATCH.COM" AS #1 LEN=1 70 PRINT "Creating DSKWATCH.COM" 80 FIELD #1,1 AS BYTE.$: 'Specify what goes into it 90 FOR N=0 TO 193 100 READ BYTE.% 110 IF BYTE.%<>-1 GOTO 150 120 FOR I=1 TO 10:FOR J=1 TO 12 130 LSET BYTE.$=MID$(E$(I),J,1):PUT#1 140 NEXT J:NEXT I:GOTO 170 150 LSET BYTE.$=CHR$(BYTE.%): 'Load byte into buffer 160 PUT#1: 'Write buffer out 170 NEXT N 180 CLOSE#1: 'Close file 190 PRINT "DSKWATCH.COM created.": 'And you're done. 200 END 210 DATA 233,251,0,-1,0,0,0,0,0,0 220 DATA 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,156,46 230 DATA 255,30,129,1,156,46,143,6,125,1 240 DATA 114,3,235,63,144,80,81,82,87,86 250 DATA 6,46,141,54,3,1,186,0,176,142 260 DATA 194,46,139,62,127,1,46,3,62,123 270 DATA 1,232,57,0,182,128,185,7,0,58 280 DATA 230,116,15,131,198,12,208,238,226,245 290 DATA 128,252,3,116,3,131,198,12,232,30 300 DATA 0,7,94,95,90,89,88,46,143,6 310 DATA 133,1,46,143,6,135,1,131,196,2 320 DATA 46,255,54,125,1,157,46,255,46,133 330 DATA 1,185,12,0,46,164,176,7,38,136 340 DATA 5,71,226,246,195,184,0,0,142,216 350 DATA 161,76,0,46,163,129,1,161,78,0 360 DATA 46,163,131,1,199,6,76,0,137,1 370 DATA 140,14,78,0,180,15,205,16,128,236 380 DATA 25,208,228,46,136,38,123,1,168,4 390 DATA 117,7,46,199,6,127,1,0,128,186 400 DATA 254,1,205,39 ============================== Cut here, too ============================== -- Name: John Ruschmeyer US Mail: Monmouth College, W. Long Branch, NJ 07764 Phone: (201) 222-6600 x366 UUCP: ...!vax135!petsd!moncol!john ...!princeton!moncol!john ...!pesnta!moncol!john Disclaimer: Monmouth College is a mecca for diverse opinions. It is, therefore, highly unlikely that the above opinions are those of anyone but me. "Are we gonna be starcrossed lovers or just good friends?"