SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET (12/09/89)
When I bought a GS, I got a 3.5" disk drive as part of the bargain. I never used it, except when I was running a GS program (too expensive to buy disks... No? Take a look at some of the name brands (the only things I knew about)... 10 disks for $30.00...). Well, eventually I learned that using them for data was as big a change as using ProDOS over DOS. Well, I thought last night was going to be a horror show night. Downloaded 1 meg of stuff onto /ram5 from the mainframe here at school, then went to show Bards Tale GS to a friend who was impressed with his //c+ version of Bards Tale III. (I'll never understand why people buy a //e or //c when there is a GS out there with their name on it...) Anyway, without thinking, I reset the ram disk to 0K. OOOOPPPSSS! Well, what a wonderful way to start off the evening. Could it get worse? You bet! Next thing I know, my friends BTIII is STUCK in the 3.5" drive... Minor surgery and a pair of needle nose pliers later (I couldn't do it. I let my friend do it and hid my face so I wouldn't have to watch the site of such primitive tools working on MY baby...), I had a working 3.5" drive. Unfortunately it sounded like something was rubbing as the drive spun. Oh well, if you can't figure it out, give it a shake! Purrrrr..... came out of that drive like nothing had ever happened. Well, what does this have to do with those incredible little 3.5" beauties? As I left my friends house (he had no car, I had to drive him home...), I slipped and fell, causing 10 or so disks I was carrying in my pocket to fall into a snowbank. Yelping, I pulled them out and brushed them off as best I could, then went home. Today, I popped the little suckers into the Macs here at school. Just fine, no loss of data, no problemo... even when I know that water at least must have gotten into them... Also, these where the GENERIC type ($.49 apeice)! Definitely worth the money for that little extra peice of mind. NOTE: Don't try this at home... These are trained stunt disks who have worked years to do this without mishap...
gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) (12/09/89)
In article <89342.122150SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET> SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >You bet! Next thing I know, my friends BTIII is STUCK in the 3.5" drive... >Minor surgery and a pair of needle nose pliers later ... Apple Disk 3.5 has a hole in the eject button. You can insert a small pin punch (or even a stiff paper clip wire) firmly to activate the ejection mechanics.
fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Andy McFadden) (12/10/89)
In article <11779@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes: >In article <89342.122150SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET> SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >>You bet! Next thing I know, my friends BTIII is STUCK in the 3.5" drive... >>Minor surgery and a pair of needle nose pliers later ... > >Apple Disk 3.5 has a hole in the eject button. >You can insert a small pin punch (or even a stiff paper clip wire) >firmly to activate the ejection mechanics. Sometimes. Horror story #1: My brother was working for a software developer, and had a 3.5" disk drive on loan. The disk that was inside wouldn't eject; it would come part of the way out and then stop. After about an hour of trying to force it out, we gave up and handed it over to an Authorized Apple Dealer. They took the drive apart, removed the disk, and all was well. They promptly put the disk back in, where it became lodged again. Disk drive 1, Apple tech 0. Semi-horror story #2: About three weeks ago, a disk I had borrowed became stuck. Apparently a flap of the disk label had come up and was preventing the disk from ejecting. I didn't have a paper clip on hand, so I tried something different. About 1/8" of the disk would protrude from the disk drive, but I was unable to pull it out. However, if I pulled WHILE THE DRIVE WAS STILL EJECTING (listen carefully to it), it would come out freely. It appears that after the drive gave up on it, it locked the disk in place. -- fadden@cory.berkeley.edu (Andy McFadden) ...!ucbvax!cory!fadden
rnf@shumv1.uucp (Rick Fincher) (12/11/89)
In article <20511@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Andy McFadden) writes: > >Semi-horror story #2: >pull it out. However, if I pulled WHILE THE DRIVE WAS STILL EJECTING >(listen carefully to it), it would come out freely. It appears that after >the drive gave up on it, it locked the disk in place. > Funny Story #1: The newer 3.5 drives have an adjuster for disk eject force. Sometimes the force is not high enough and the disk doesn't come all the way out. I've seen guys in a repair shop crank the force up and shoot disk all the way across the room! You can even play Disk-Football by aiming the drive and shooting through some "goalposts". Rick Fincher rnf@shumv1.ncsu.edu
dseah@wpi.wpi.edu (David I Seah) (12/11/89)
In article <11779@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes: >In article <89342.122150SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET> SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >>You bet! Next thing I know, my friends BTIII is STUCK in the 3.5" drive... >>Minor surgery and a pair of needle nose pliers later ... Ow...I can just see the plastic whitening and crackling as the needlenose wedges itself into the slot, making little ridges and dents all over the drive and disk, then the drive heads reluctantly scraping along the edge of the disk case as it is extracted like a loosened wood screw from aging plasterboard... >Apple Disk 3.5 has a hole in the eject button. >You can insert a small pin punch (or even a stiff paper clip wire) >firmly to activate the ejection mechanics. This would have been a good idea O:-) -- Dave Seah | O M N I D Y N E S Y S T E M S - M | Internet: dseah@wpi.wpi.edu | User Friendly Killing Machines | America Online: AFC DaveS
SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET (12/13/89)
In article <6161@wpi.wpi.edu> dseah@wpi.wpi.edu (David I Seah) writes: >In article <11779@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes: >>>In article <89342.122150SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET> SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >>>You bet! Next thing I know, my friends BTIII is STUCK in the 3.5" drive... >>>Minor surgery and a pair of needle nose pliers later ... > >Ow...I can just see the plastic whitening and crackling as the needlenose >wedges itself into the slot, making little ridges and dents all over the >drive and disk, then the drive heads reluctantly scraping along the edge of >the disk case as it is extracted like a loosened wood screw from aging >plasterboard... Sorry, I should have made myself a little clearer. First we removed the bottom of the case... It would be a little difficult to get disk out with needlenose considering that the slot is only about 75% smaller than a pair of pliers... Also, the drive heads had just disengaged, they were not anywhere near the disk, rather like what was said in a previous article about having to pry it out with the drive turned on... Same thing here. >>Apple Disk 3.5 has a hole in the eject button. >>You can insert a small pin punch (or even a stiff paper clip wire) >>firmly to activate the ejection mechanics. > >This would have been a good idea O:-) Yes, this would have been an excellent idea, except that I tried it 3 or 4 times and nothing would happen. The idea of the pliers was the AP*LE dealers suggestion since the repair department wouldn't open till 9:00am the next day. Any idea how hard it is to work with a GS when you have <<NO>> disk drives except a RAMFactor??? PS: Has anyone noticed that only the people working on the II line were intelligent enough to allow a person to use the little button on the front of the drive? Much easier to get a disk out instead of dragging things around the desktop... Oh, in a completely unrelated item, has anyone archived the ACS demo in an FTP site? I didn't have a modem that week and couldn't download it. Also, I won't be around to do it now... Leave me a note in E-mail if you have a copy, I think they save that over break...
cmp8118@sys.uea.ac.uk (D.S. Cartwright) (12/14/89)
SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >In article <6161@wpi.wpi.edu> dseah@wpi.wpi.edu (David I Seah) writes: >>In article <11779@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes: >>>>In article <89342.122150SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET> SAB121@PSUVM.BITNET writes: [...and so on about disc extraction from Macs...] Basically, forgive me if I'm thick, but I always thought you could extricate a disc from a Mac by turning the power on with the mouse button held down. Just a thought ... Dave C.
wombat@claris.com (Scott Lindsey) (12/16/89)
In article <1047@sys.uea.ac.uk> cmp8118@sys.uea.ac.uk (D.S. Cartwright) writes: > Basically, forgive me if I'm thick, but I always thought you could extricate a > disc from a Mac by turning the power on with the mouse button held down. > Just a thought ... ... but what if your ADB is fried, so the mouse and the keyboard don't do anything (this happened to me recently). I had no choice but to paper-clip the thing out. Scott Lindsey |"Cold and misty morning. I heard a warning borne in the air Claris Corp. | About an age of power when no one had an hour to spare" ames!claris!wombat| DISCLAIMER: These are not the opinions of Claris, Apple, wombat@claris.com | StyleWare, the author, or anyone else living or Dead.