mnhou@ihlpm.ATT.COM (M. N. Hougaard) (02/08/89)
Hello all, I have a couple of questions and a problem that hopefully someone can solve, but first, the setup. I have an Apple IIGS with 1.75 Meg memory via AE's GS-RAM (old enough to be pre-DMA compatible), upgraded to ROM 01 (the only ROM upgrade I know of), two Apple 3.5" drives, one Apple 5.25" drive, and a CMS 60 Meg hard drive with CMS controller card partitioning the 60 Meg into two 30 Meg drives (C1 and C2). Also, I've been running GS/OS since Sept./Oct 1988 with no major problems to speak of. Now, the problem: The other day while running TaxView(tm) by SoftView (the same people who did MacInTax) the program complained about C1 being damaged and crashed (more about that later) when trying to save a form. Upon rebooting the GS, GS/OS also complained that C1 was damaged when trying to access the directory (folder) that the save file was in. Fighting total panic (after all 15+ Meg of data, programs, and the operating system were on C1) I ran CMS's disk utility and had it look for bad blocks on C1. It found NONE. What I did seem to discover, however, that there doesn't seem to be any physical damage, but, instead it seems that the file that was being written was never closed and some stray bits, as it were, corrupted that folder, and a couple of other files in a "totally separate" folder, such that GS/OS cannot access those file without complaining either. In fact, GS/OS has a hard time with the parent directory with these files/folders left unlocked, so they are now locked, that much I could do. I cannot remove any files, as the system won't let me. Now the questions: How do I get rid of these files? I suspect I'll have to re-format C1, but that bring me to my second problem and question. How do I back up 30+ meg of data? That is short of writing 50+ 3.5" disks. I called CMS Enhancements, Inc. knowing they have a 60 Meg tape drive. All I got, however, was more bad news. 1) Yes, they have a 60 Meg tape drive. 2) No, it doesn't work on ANY Apple II line product (yes, it works on Mac). 3) Even though I have CMS's SCSI drive and card, it can NOT have ANY additions SCSI devices chained off of it, no hard drives, no tape drives, no anything. The good news was, the rep. (Tim Glick) was very helpful and willing to LISTEN! He checked with the engineering department for the nasty tidbits above and called me back, twice in fact, long distance no less (Calif. to Ill.) to tell me the bad news. He also told me that he would pass the information on back to the engineering department that there IS interest in mass backup systems for the Apple II line (esp. GS) and that if there was enough interest, they would do something about it. So, if you are interested in getting a tape back-up for your CMS drive, then drop Tim a line at: CMS Enhancements, Inc. 1372 Valencia, Ave. Tustin, CA 92680 Atten: Tim Glick Or give him a call at (714) 259-5949. NOTICE: I have absolutely NO connections with CMS other than I own one of their disk drives. So, back to my problem, has anyone out there done what the engineering at CMS said couldn't be done? Namely connecting another SCSI drive to a CMS drive and making it work. Yes, I know 1st Class Peripherals has a Sider with a tape back-up system. Yes, I know it's not compatible with CMS, because the Sider does not conform as far as the rest of the industry is concerned. No, I'm not going to change over to a Sider no matter what 1st Class or Apple says as to what "the standards" are. About TaxView, I like the interface, it is slooow booting/running (a Transwarp GS would help), and it's much too easy to crash (I plan to talk to SoftView about this). I'll post the results. Thanks in advance, Mark Hougaard att!ihlpm!mnhou
STEIN@UCONNVM.BITNET (Alan Stein) (02/09/89)
Maybe you can't connect another HD to your CMS, but could you
connect your CMS to another HD?
Another possibility would be, if you had a friend with a HD, to
put two SCSI cards in your computer for the operation.
Alan H. Stein Department of Mathematics
The University of Connecticut at Waterbury
32 Hillside Avenue, Waterbury, CT 06710
(203) 757-1231
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