engelhardt@edinboro.edu (Rick Engelhardt) (06/29/90)
We are experiencing an unusually high number of problems with
diskette damage in conjunction with the use of IBM model 30-286s. We
run many IBM model 30-286s (an estimated 80 - 100 all together) on our
campus in offices and in labs open for use by the general University
population. Diskettes become unreadable after a relatively short time
(less than a month of light use). A hardware technician told me that
it isn't an adjustment problem (e.g. - it's not misaligned drive heads
causing the problem) because there isn't anything to adjust; everything
is preset at the factory. He theorized that it may be physical
diskette damage due to the inherent design of floppy drives; the top
drive head is on a movable arm and could conceivably "crash" on a
diskette and scratch it. I have examined several diskettes and have
found scratches in a concentric circular pattern on a small number, but
many of them haven't been physically damaged at all. I have been able
to salvage a few diskettes recently with the PC Tools DISKFIX utility;
it has a "revitalize disk" option which examines a disk and rewrites
the address marks on it. Most of these disks had lost clusters and/or
cross-linked clusters on them when checked. The floppy drives of many
of these machines have been checked with the testing software included
with the model 30-286; the software reports no problems found with the
drives. Although it is relatively impossible to tell which machines
in our open labs are causing the problems (students move from machine
to machine frequently, and tracing the problem to specific machines has
been difficult to do with any reliability), we have identified a couple
of office machines that give far more problems than others do. The
problems have been intermittent but reoccur frequently. Both high
quality diskettes (e.g. - Sony) and generic 1.44 MB diskettes have been
used, so media quality doesn't seem to factor into the problem. I can
come up with no clear reason as to why the problem is occurring.
Has anyone else been experiencing similar problems? Can anyone
suggest causes for these problems and/or courses of action? Please let
me know via mail; if there is interest in this, I will summarize the
answers and post the summary to the net. Thanks all in advance for your
assistance!
Rick Engelhardt
Academic Computing, Computer Center, Edinboro University of PA
Internet: ENGELHARDT@EDINBORO.EDU
Voice: (814)732-2931poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) (07/02/90)
In article <1659@edinboro.edu> engelhardt@edinboro.edu (Rick Engelhardt) writes: > > We are experiencing an unusually high number of problems with >diskette damage in conjunction with the use of IBM model 30-286s. We >run many IBM model 30-286s (an estimated 80 - 100 all together) on our >campus in offices and in labs open for use by the general University >population. Diskettes become unreadable after a relatively short time >(less than a month of light use). A hardware technician told me that >it isn't an adjustment problem (e.g. - it's not misaligned drive heads >causing the problem) because there isn't anything to adjust; everything >is preset at the factory. He theorized that it may be physical >diskette damage due to the inherent design of floppy drives; the top >drive head is on a movable arm and could conceivably "crash" on a >diskette and scratch it. On a floppy disk, the head is *supposed* to contact the media, I doubt this is a problem. >I have examined several diskettes and have >found scratches in a concentric circular pattern on a small number, but >many of them haven't been physically damaged at all. Because the head DOES contact the media, there will usually be some signs of wear after a while, but a small amount is considered normal. >I have been able >to salvage a few diskettes recently with the PC Tools DISKFIX utility; >it has a "revitalize disk" option which examines a disk and rewrites >the address marks on it. Most of these disks had lost clusters and/or >cross-linked clusters on them when checked. Are you saying that these are the problems you see? Can you re-format the disks? If you can re-format OK, then the cross-linked cluster and such is probably *NOT* a physical problem, but a problem with software or the way the system is being used. For example, shutting off the system with an application still active can do this because files may not have been closed properly. Also, there is a slight chance that turning the machine off and on with a disk engaged in the drive may do this. Although this was a notorious problem on older types of machines (Apple II's for exanple) and not so much on modern machines, it is still a rare possibility. >The floppy drives of many >of these machines have been checked with the testing software included >with the model 30-286; the software reports no problems found with the >drives. Although it is relatively impossible to tell which machines >in our open labs are causing the problems (students move from machine >to machine frequently, and tracing the problem to specific machines has >been difficult to do with any reliability), we have identified a couple >of office machines that give far more problems than others do. The >problems have been intermittent but reoccur frequently. Both high >quality diskettes (e.g. - Sony) and generic 1.44 MB diskettes have been >used, so media quality doesn't seem to factor into the problem. I can >come up with no clear reason as to why the problem is occurring. Try to pin it down to a specific software package, that might be the key. > > Has anyone else been experiencing similar problems? Can anyone >suggest causes for these problems and/or courses of action? Please let >me know via mail; if there is interest in this, I will summarize the >answers and post the summary to the net. Thanks all in advance for your >assistance! > Russ Poffenberger DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen 1601 Technology Drive CIS: 72401,276 San Jose, Ca. 95110 (408)437-5254