lgreen@pnet01.cts.com (Lawrence Greenwald) (04/24/89)
The following is the result of an occurance that occurred this past Wednesday and involves some real flakiness in my system. If anyone can figure out what happened and how to prevent it in the future, I would be grateful. This has already been posted to American Peoplelink (PLINK for short). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's an incident I had last night. I don't understand the full circumstances or ramifications of what happened, and if anyone can fathom what happened from my ramblings below and enlighten me, I would be grateful. What happened follows: I was playing around with Deluxe Paint II (not III) trying to load some pictures (some with 64 colors). I was getting junk (I didn't care really what I was getting). Anyway all of a sudden I get a requester: AmigaFF has a read/write error (Retry/Cancel). Well, I hit retry and get my garbled picture. "Oh well, enough of that" and I leave Dpaint. Then close my disk icon and remembering what I want to do, start up ARPshell (1.3) and run DiskMan (the PD version of DiskMaster) and click on FH0: box. Surprise 1: Get the read/write error requester again. Hit retry a few times before hitting cancel and bringing back Diskman with directory of FH0:. It gets better. Later (now having left Diskman and back in Workbench), click on FH0: icon. Surprise 2: right, same requester. Click retry a few times then cancel, and get directory....EXCEPT...one of my icons is missing!! The icon is for the drawer Backup, where I keep Quarterback. Oh oh I think, so enter Ashell and call up directory. Whew!, directory is still there, but Backup.info file (Icon) is gone. "No Problem!" I say, fire up Diskman, copy icon Empty.info to ram:, rename it to Backup.info and copy it back. EXCEPT...Where's the file?? It doesn't show up in the Diskman directory. Ok, try again. Same result. ("Huh? What's going on here??"). Go to shell. Copy "Empty.info" to Backup.info again (running 1.3 ARP). Do a 'dir' and 'list'. No file listed. Try "delete Backup.info" expecting a 'not found' message. Don't get one (It apparently deleted). Enter command again...NOW I get 'not found' message. Hmmmmmm.... So I say, forget it. Delete the drawer entirely, and grab a copy off backup disks. So I do the restore...all files and icon file. Open up the disk icon on Workbench...it still doesn't show!! Enough of that, so shut down and get out of the house for a while... It's now Thursday, April 20. Fire up machine and open disk, still got that missing space. So, now copy the entire drawer to new directory 'Qback'. Then try 'copy Empty.info to Qback.info'. NOW IT WORKS!! Directory is there as well as access via Workbench icon. So it boils down to this...any copying of an icon .info file (it was of the drawer type) to the name 'Backup.info' apparently WORKED, yet it never shows up on either the Workbench or in a directory listing. Can anyone figure this?? Larry Greenwald UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd sdcsvax nosc}!crash!pnet01!lgreen ARPA: crash!pnet01!lgreen@nosc.mil INET: lgreen@pnet01.cts.com SNAIL:4545 Collwood Blvd, #52 San Diego, CA 92115 "I'm looking over a three-leaf clover that I overlooked be-three!" -Bugs Bunny
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (04/25/89)
[I'm guessing here of course, take that for what it's worth.] In article <4110@crash.cts.com> (Lawrence Greenwald) writes: >What happened follows: > >I was playing around with Deluxe Paint II (not III) trying to load some >pictures (some with 64 colors). I was getting junk (I didn't care really >what I was getting). This really says "I was using DPaint II with some pictures that it had no idea how to handle, EA probably never tested this stuff at EA either." > Anyway all of a sudden I get a requester: AmigaFF has >a read/write error (Retry/Cancel). Well, I hit retry and get my garbled >picture. "Oh well, enough of that" and I leave Dpaint. After confusing the heck out of Dpaint, I get a *disk* error. [Have you ever seen these before?] > Then close my disk icon and remembering what I want to do, start > up ARPshell (1.3) and run DiskMan (the PD version of DiskMaster) > and click on FH0: box. Does this imply a FastFileSystem partition (FH0?). >Surprise 1: Get the read/write error requester again. Hit retry a few times >before hitting cancel and bringing back Diskman with directory of FH0:. At this point I would say, oh great, Dpaint has screwed the FFS handler but not enough to break it completely, just enough to make it act weird. I WOULD REBOOT. >It gets better. [More bizarre behaviour deleted] >Enough of that, so shut down and get out of the house for a while... Maybe you should have done this first. >It's now Thursday, April 20. Fire up machine and open disk, still got that >missing space. So, now copy the entire drawer to new directory 'Qback'. >Then try 'copy Empty.info to Qback.info'. NOW IT WORKS!! Directory is there >as well as access via Workbench icon. This is the biggest clue that Dpaint just subtly corrupted memory and hosed your system. It is a hazard of multitasking without memory protection, and one of the reasons why GOMF is so dangerous. I'd bet that your disk is now corrupt (mostly because you tried to write on it before rebooting) and that the next time it validates (could be in a couple of weeks) you'll get the "Use DiskDoctor" requester. The lesson to be learned here is that when your doing something and the system starts acting "funny" then you should take the time to reboot. >Can anyone figure this?? Those are my guesses. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "A most excellent barbarian ... Genghis Kahn!"
ugkamins@sunybcs.uucp (John Kaminski) (04/26/89)
Whenever something strange like that happens with files or the filing system, that goes away after leaving the machine alone and rebooting, suspect one of two things: a virus (my first guess) and insufficient machine cooling (depends, but usually much less likely).