ssdbruce@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Bruce Crabtree) (09/22/90)
Dear Benevolent Network, Yet another unix-pc has bitten the dust. I am writing this in the hope that someone might provide some suggestions for me. My machine is a 3b1 with 3.5 M memory and a 67 M disk running version 3.5. (3.5 was installed on it when I got it.) The problem started when the floppy disk would not read properly. Following suggestions from postings in this group I opened the case, removed the floppy drive, cleaned off any dust I saw, and reinstalled it. After I installed the floppy disk, I closed the case and ran the 3.5 diags to check it. No problems were reported so I rebooted from the hard disk. After booting, a message appeared indicating something to the effect that window 0 could not be opened. The message was followed by the '#' prompt leading me to believe that I was in single user mode. Unfortunately, probably due to the late hour, instead of running fsck or trying to understand the problem I rebooted again. This time the machine would not boot. Using the diagnostic program I was able to determine that several sectors of the hard disk could not be read. Fortunately I had access to a 7300 running 3.51 and was able to create a bootable disk with fsck on it as described in the FAQ posting (thanks Lenny). After creating the disk with fsck on it I attempted to boot the system using the floppy boot disk. When prompted I inserted the disk with fsck on it in the drive and pressed <Shift> <Del> as described in the instructions in the FAQ. The following text appeared on the screen during this procedure.. Version 3.5 Real Memory = 3670016 Available Memory = 3325952 Main board is P3...P5 Floppy Unix Please insert Floppy File System disk - disk 3 of 12 Press any key when ready (I insert the disk created as described in FAQ and press <Shift> <Del>.) #HDERR ST:51 EF:1 CL:FF00 SN:FF00 SC:FF02 SDH:FF20 DMACNT:FFFF DCRREG:F0 MCRREG:8900 #HDERR ST:51 EF:1 CL:FF00 SN:FF00 SC:FF02 SDH:FF20 DMACNT:FFFF DCRREG:F0 MCRREG:8900 panic: iinit Please record panic message. Press hardware reset to reboot. Since it didn't work I decided to try again and let it continue. I then booted again using the floppy boot disk and the disk with fsck on it but this time I pressed the space bar instead. The following text appeared on the screen: Version 3.5 Real Memory = 3670016 Available Memory = 3325952 Main board is P3...P5 Floppy Unix Please insert Floppy File System disk - disk 3 of 12 Press any key when ready (I insert the disk created as described in FAQ and press the space bar.) #HDERR ST:51 EF:1 CL:FF00 SN:FF00 SC:FF02 SDH:FF20 DMACNT:FFFF DCRREG:F0 MCRREG:8900 #HDERR ST:51 EF:1 CL:FF00 SN:FF00 SC:FF02 SDH:FF20 DMACNT:FFFF DCRREG:F0 MCRREG:8900 #HDERR ST:51 EF:1 CL:FF00 SN:FF00 SC:FF02 SDH:FF20 DMACNT:FFFF DCRREG:F0 MCRREG:8900 panic: iinit Please record panic message. Press hardware reset to reboot. From postings I see in this group I thought perhaps the power supply was to blame. I open the case and measured the voltage to the disk. The voltages were 12.1 and 5.0 volts across each pair of the disk power cable. By this time I decided to shut the machine down and come back to it when I had more time. After being shut down for about 4 days I tried to boot up and run the diagnostics. This time I got a 'unable to Reacal' disk error and could not continue. I believe this was do to a stiction problem. Thanks to the network I know about this problem and was able to get a 20 Mb miniscribe working enough to back it up. This time when I disassembled the 3b1 I found that the 67 Mb disk drive is indeed a miniscribe and may therefore have a stiction problem. Unfortunately, unlike the 20 Mb disk, the stepper motor appears to be sealed inside the disk unit so I can't access it directly to nudge it. Now I realize that I am in over my head and humbly turn to the net for advice. I believe that I will need to replace the hard disk, but I would like to understand more about what has happened. My questions are: 1. How do I get the 67 Mb disk unstuck if I can't reach the stepper motor? 2. Is there a way to recover any data from the 67 Mb disk? 3. What was preventing me from booting off the floppy? 4. What can I do to prevent this from happening again? Thank you for you assistance, Bruce Crabtree ssdbruce@jarthur.claremont.edu -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bruce Crabtree ssdbruce@jarthur.claremont.edu Software Systems Design, Inc [W] 1-714-624-2306 Claremont, CA