ia4@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Imran Anwar) (01/19/90)
Here is a simple problem :-)
I use an Atari 1040 ST on which I can prepare and save text files on PC format
720K 3.5" disks. These I take to school and use them in the NCR PCs there for
printouts as I have no printer :-(
Recently the school added some HP PCs with 1.4M 3.5" floppies. There seems to
be a compatibility problem as the 1.44M drives do not read 720K floppies made
on the NCR PC compatibles (or my Atari ST).
One of the staff there solved the problem by "Formatting a Low Density 3.5"
Disk on a High Density Drive" command available in the menu. Sure enough,
the floppy formatted as 720K on the 1.4M machine worked fine on the 720K drives
including my Atari ST drive.
So I spent the whole night typing some reports and saved them on this floppy.
The next day, at school, I had to use the 1.4M drive PC as that is the one
connected to a Laserprinter. But, surprise, that very drive that had formatted
the disk showed it to be blank (even though the files showed up on the 720K
drive PCs). It simply said, File Not Found.
What could be the problem?
But wait. That is not all :-( . I then typed a small note on the PC and when
I tried saving it on my disk I got a Disk Error 27. Checking the disk on a
720K drive showed that the directory had been corrupted. Some of the files I
had created just did not exist anymore :-{. Also the bytes remaining number
showed up as ^&%#$&($&*$&) or something. And a few files with similar garbage
names showed up. But when I tried to delete or open them they were "not found".
I took the disk home and used a disk doctor type program to read the sectors.
I found that most of the matter for my files was still there on disk eg from
Sector 118-120, #140-149 etc. Also, the program has an option to recover files
accidentally deleted by making their names again visible in the directory. But
this program failed to do so. Checking the first few sectors of the disk showed
that: Names of exisitng files are saved on those sectors, names of files delete
d by me show up but with a Hex E5 replacing the first letter of the file
name, but the names of my three lost files donot show up at all. Hence the
program cannot recover them.
My question(s). Any idea of what could have happened? Solution?
Also, is there any PC utility I can use that helps recreate files simply by
allowing sectors to be linked even if the filename is missing from directory?
Any help will be appreciated. I also wonder if other people have had this
problem.
Imran Anwarsteve@thelake.mn.org (Steve Yelvington) (01/19/90)
[In article <2646@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu>,
ia4@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Imran Anwar) writes ... ]
> I use an Atari 1040 ST on which I can prepare and save text files on PC format
> 720K 3.5" disks. These I take to school and use them in the NCR PCs there for
> printouts as I have no printer :-(
>
> Recently the school added some HP PCs with 1.4M 3.5" floppies. There seems to
> be a compatibility problem as the 1.44M drives do not read 720K floppies made
> on the NCR PC compatibles (or my Atari ST).
>
I've had all sorts of bizarre problems with PCs and compatibles not being
able to read each others' disks. We have several dozen PCs at the Star
Tribune, and I don't trust them as far as I can spit. Perhaps it's a drive
alignment problem, or perhaps it's that PC disk controllers aren't very
smart. The 1.44MB drives have a reputation for being even more flaky than
the run of the mill when asked to read/write 720K disks.
On the other hand, just this evening I copied the DeSmet Personal C
compiler and some source code off my ST's hard drive onto a preformatted
720K 3M Corp. disk (from a good Minnesota company), took it to work, stuck
them in a couple of '286 and '386 PS/2s with 1.44MB drives, and ran the
compiler just fine.* So PCs and clones can work when they want to. (Sorry;
I know that doesn't help.)
--
*This is not to be taken as a suggestion that I think the DeSmet
PCC is worth the price of a floppy disk, let alone the shareware
fee. Sozobon C has spoiled me rotten.
--
Steve Yelvington at the (thin ice today*) lake in Minnesota
UUCP path: ... umn-cs.cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve
*16 cars through the ice so far this year! Yes, you, too, can
have that sinking feeling....goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) (01/20/90)
In article <2646@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu>, ia4@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Imran Anwar) writes... >...One of the staff there solved the problem by "Formatting a Low Density 3.5" >Disk on a High Density Drive" command available in the menu. Sure enough, >the floppy formatted as 720K on the 1.4M machine worked fine on the 720K drives >including my Atari ST drive. > >So I spent the whole night typing some reports and saved them on this floppy. >The next day, at school, I had to use the 1.4M drive PC as that is the one >connected to a Laserprinter. But, surprise, that very drive that had formatted >the disk showed it to be blank (even though the files showed up on the 720K >drive PCs). It simply said, File Not Found. > >What could be the problem? >...My question(s). Any idea of what could have happened? Solution? I own both an ST and a PClone witha 1.44 drive. Unlike the one you used, mine has no trouble at all reading/writing 720k formatted disks. Unlike 5.25" disks, there's no difference in track size between the two densities, just in track density and write current. Probably the 1.44 drive is broken! But the other likely problem is that you screwed up the disk by swapping IBM-formatted disks on the ST. Remember that the ST uses disk serial numbers to determine media change. MSDOS disks don't have serial numbers. So swapping two MSDOS disks on an ST, without inserting an intermediate Atari-formatted disk, will make the ST think you've reinserted the same disk, and it'll use the old FAT info. I format disks on the ST using IBMFMT, a freeware utility that writes MSDOS-formatted disks with the random serial number. TOS 1.4 does the same. Other formatters don't, and you should be careful not to confuse the ST serial number checker. fred --- Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice: +1 508 486 7388
boyd@fsucs.cs.fsu.edu (Mickey Boyd) (02/01/90)
In article <1938@bucket.UUCP>, leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes: > >I'd say that the machine with the 1.44 Meg drive is badly broken. >-- >Leonard Erickson ...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard >CIS: [70465,203] >"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. >Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short Nope, I have just discovered the same problem. Someone post a solution quick!! -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------+------------------------------------- Mickey Boyd | "Nobody can be exactly like me. | Even I have trouble doing it." FSU Comp Sci | - Tallulah Bankhead ---------------------------------+------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------