MAXG@SUVM.BITNET (Gerry Greenberg) (02/20/89)
I am having some problems with my magic sac set up and was hoping that
someone might be able to help me. I figured I'd try this group first
because I'm trying to cut down on my GENIE costs, I know there a whole
lot of people who read the digest who know quite a bit, and finally I
figure that since Dan Moore and David Small post things here
periodically, if no one else can help out, maybe they can and would be
willing to give me some tips. Anyway, before I get to the problem,
here's my setup:
520ST upgraded to 1Meg (MONO)
Magic Sac and Translator1
One SF354 (Single Sided Drive) [Drive A]
One Mitsubishi Double Sided drive that I bought used...it was an IBM
drive that was adjusted to work with the ST [Drive B]
I work with MS Word. I have the application, help file, main
dictionary, and standard glossary on a double sided disk in drive B and
I keep the documents on a single sided disk in drive A.
I ran this system for about 6 months without the translator and had no
problems...I bought the translator used and had no problem for 2 or 3
months, but have recently started to have the following problem: I will
save a document and then quit Word. When I get back to the Finder
level, the double sided disk will sometimes need minor repairs, will
sometimes have the same files that are on the disk in Drive A (while
retaining the same number of bytes used as it did before I ran
Word...e.g. I just tried it out and here's what happened...I used a new
document disk and save a 4 line file on it...that took up, let's say,
3K. When I quit Word, the application disk in Drive B showed that it
only had this one document file, but that the disk had over 500K or 600K
with over 100K or something left---this is what it should be with Word,
the dictionary, etc. on the disk). So, the application disk in Drive B
sometimes looks just like the disk in Drive A, sometimes it retains all
of its original files, but then picks up the saved document, even though
I didn't save the document to that drive. Once or twice I was able to
get the disk back to normal by ejecting it (dragging to trash) and then
reinserting it, but this doesn't always work.
A little more info...I tried running the translator test on the
drives...Drive A is OK, but Drive B doesn't seem able to Format Mac
disks...I didn't think this should matter with regard to my other
problem because I only use 800K disks that are in Magic format. Drive B
formats fine in Magic mode, and I have no trouble with it in ST mode.
Well, I think that is about all that I can think of ... I did have a
problem with two other disks...but I didn't really play around with them
as much as I did in connection with the problem I outlined above. I
have MacWrite on two disks and when I tried to open it on both disks, I
got a message that the disks were too full to open a document. Both
disks showed that they had over 100K free, and I even copied a file to
one disk, but still couldn't open MacWrite. This situation, too, has
happened only after adding the translator to the system...I haven't used
MacWrite in a long time, so I don't remember if the problem is really
directly related to the translator...I do know that I used MacWrite just
after I got the Sac for a while and had no problems.
Well, that's it...I hope I was able to describe the problem
understandably enough...I would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone
who has had this (or a similar) problem, and even more greatly
appreciate hearing from someone who has a solution to this problem. You
can post replies to the network, or send them to me at either of the
following addresses:
MAXG @ SUVM (BITNET)
ggreenbe @ rodan.acs.syr.edu (Internet)dlm@druhi.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (02/23/89)
in article <8902200430.AA04601@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, MAXG@SUVM.BITNET (Gerry Greenberg) says: > I am having some problems with my magic sac set up and was hoping that > someone might be able to help me. > [...] > I ran this system for about 6 months without the translator and had no > problems...I bought the translator used and had no problem for 2 or 3 > months, but have recently started to have the following problem: I will > save a document and then quit Word. When I get back to the Finder > level, the double sided disk will sometimes need minor repairs, will > sometimes have the same files that are on the disk in Drive A (while > retaining the same number of bytes used as it did before I ran > Word I can think of several things that might cause the problem you are seeing: 1) Your System file might be damaged. A damaged System or Finder can cause lots of very weird problems. As a general rule, whenever something weird starts happening replace your System and Finder with copies from your original Mac System/Finder disk. 2) You may be crossing System versions, ie. boot with a disk with one version of System and then your work disk has a different version on it. Changing versions of System files while running is an almost sure way to confuse a Mac. Check that all the disks you will be using have the same version of System. (NOTE: The Mac will usually use the System file on the disk the last application was run from. Finder will put the current System disk above any other disk icons on the desktop.) 3) The Mac may think the two disks are identical, so it doesn't know which one to write on. The Mac uses the disk name and it's creation date to id a disk. If two disks have the same name it may not be able to figure out which is which even if the dates are different. Make sure your work disks have different names. 4) The "Translator One" may be messing up the drive select. I doubt this is happening since you haven't had any problems when using ST disks. Unplug the Translator and see if the problem goes away. If it does call Data Pacific and arrange for them to repair the Translator. > A little more info...I tried running the translator test on the > drives...Drive A is OK, but Drive B doesn't seem able to Format Mac > disks...I didn't think this should matter with regard to my other > problem because I only use 800K disks that are in Magic format. Drive B > formats fine in Magic mode, and I have no trouble with it in ST mode. There are three things that would prevent the Translator from formatting Mac disks in your double sided drive. The drive could be spinning at the wrong speed or the drive may contain a filter that prevents non-MFM data from being written. If the drive can write to Mac formatted disks then it is most likely a speed problem. You might also being having problems with signal reflections in the drive cables. Try switching drive A and B (ie. make the double sided drive A) and see if things get better. Also try putting the Translator at the end of the drive chain instead of between drive A and the ST. > as much as I did in connection with the problem I outlined above. I > have MacWrite on two disks and when I tried to open it on both disks, I > got a message that the disks were too full to open a document. Both > disks showed that they had over 100K free, and I even copied a file to > one disk, but still couldn't open MacWrite. This situation, too, has It's possible that your copies of MacWrite are damaged and will no longer load. If you do have a damaged System file then they might have been damaged by it. Another possiblity is caused by how Mac MFS directories are stored. Mac MFS disks have a limited amount of space available for directory entries. The exact number of entries varies based on the length of the file names, longer names allow fewer entries. MacWrite normally opens a temp file when run, it's possible that the length of the temp file name was greater than the available directory space. Try copying MacWrite to a blank disk and see if it will run there. If it still doesn't work try recopying it from your original Mac disk. Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druwy.ATT.COM dlm@druhi.ATT.COM