mullen@sdsu.edu (Deborah Mullen) (08/17/89)
I am working on an application using a Compaq 386 that has been modified to use a Western Digital disk controller board instead of the multifunction io card. Other modifications include two segate type 251 42M hard disks. No special harddisk device driver is being used. Every now and then, (in the space of a few hrs) while running the application, files (that are not being used) are getting corrupted ( parts of a cluster will have changed data). Also, running norton DT before and after running the application, shows numerous new bad clusters. My questions. Is there any way software can corrupt the disk media? If memory corruption occurs in the system area, would that mess up the FAT? Could it be possible that a special harddisk driver needs to be installed? The application does not crash. It is only after stopping the program that I discover the disk errors and it does not happen all the time. Any comments would be appreciated. --Deborah Mullen
daveg@hpcvlx.HP.COM (Dave Guggisberg) (08/17/89)
Hi Deborah I don't think Compaq has a proper entry in its disk table for the ST-251. Depending on which disk table entry you are using and where the data is located on the disk, you can certainly have problems with your disk. I have a Compaq DeskPro 286 that has had two ST-251s in it in the past. I use a Western Digital WAH-0003 controller. I had to write a TSR that repointed the hard disk drive information vector to my TSR which contained the proper disk parameters for the ST-251. I have never had a problem with this set-up. I suggest that you try something similar. Good-luck. Remember Compaq is not 100% compatable. Dave Guggisberg Hewlett-Packard (503) 750-3402 daveg@cv.hp.com