russ@prism.gatech.EDU (Russell Shackelford) (06/12/89)
just got myself a 386. i also got a Sony 1.44 drive to go in it as the B drive. I have both an immediate problem and a less-pressing question: Problem: the drive WILL read the DIRECTORY info from 3.5" disks from other sources but will NOT read FILE contents or write them, i.e., i get a "general error: abort retry ignore?" message (not verbatim but close). When i attempt a format, it will chug for a while and then gimme a failure message on disks that i know are good. hmmmmmm. drive came with no doc except for a flyer saying it was setup for drive B. it IS set to ds2; i cannot recognize any terminator packs on it. what's the deal? what's the fix? any ideas? (NOTE: this problem may or may not be caused or aggravated by the fact that i've got an Archive tape drive installed along with the board that muxes the 2 floppies (1.2 & the Sony) along with the tape drive; dunno if this matters, i will experiment with this. I do know that both the 1.2 drive and the tape drive are functioning properly. thus, it seems unlikely that the mux is the problem, but if it IS the problem, i will know about it tomorrow. if not ???????) . The Sony flyer also says that it works with IBM, etc., but for others a sw driver might be necessary; this seems irrelevant since this is an apparently legit clone Phoenix 386 bios, but who knows? Other Question: does anybody know how to disable the hardware sensor on this thing so that DD disks can be used as HD (assuming i get it to work at all)? Doc note: the flyer that came with the Sony drive is for drives MP-F11W-55D and MP-F17W-55D. It makes reference to "the installation kit manual (CH-100)" for durther info, but I DON"T HAVE such a manual. -- Russell Shackelford School of Information and Computer Science Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332 russ@prism.gatech.edu (404) 834-4759
dulimart@cpsvax.cps.msu.edu (Hansye S. Dulimarta) (06/13/89)
In article <817@hydra.gatech.EDU> russ@prism.gatech.EDU (Russell Shackelford) writes: >I have both an immediate problem and a less-pressing question: > >Problem: the drive WILL read the DIRECTORY info from 3.5" disks from other >sources but will NOT read FILE contents or write them, i.e., i get a >"general error: abort retry ignore?" message (not verbatim but close). >When i attempt a format, it will chug for a while and then gimme a failure >message on disks that i know are good. hmmmmmm. I just had a similar problem (not exactly the same with yours), when I tried to FORMAT my 3.5" diskette and got a failure message : "bad track 0 sector 0" (not verbatim !). To my surprise, the solution is very simple. I noticed that there is a small hole on the LOWER RIGHT side of the diskette (not the write protect hole). When I closed this hole with a tape, I can format my diskette without any problem. You might need to check for that hole in your diskette. >Other Question: does anybody know how to disable the hardware sensor on this >thing so that DD disks can be used as HD (assuming i get it to work at all)? I have no idea about the hardware sensor, but I tried to format my DD diskette as a HD format without any problem (I got a space for 1.44 Meg byte on my DD). I have heard that this practice will NOT guarantee the reliability of my diskette, because the name DD (in same case) doesn't mean that it can't be used as a HD diskette, but the diskette is manufactured and "tested" with the mentioned specification on the diskette. Remember that the recording medium on the diskette is a kind of chemical compound (oxide). Hope it'll help. Hans Dept. of Comp. Sci. MSU East Lansing, MI 48825