schapman@cheddar.uucp (Scott Chapman {x6088}) (01/11/90)
I have noticed a problem with my new SE (with an internal 20Meg drive) when intializing SOME High Density (HD) disks. Generally I can initialize the disk on the first pass. However if I try to erase the disk my system will come up with some kind of a disk error and will NEVER be able to re-initialize the disk ever! I have ruined a few HD disks this way... Last night I ruined a double sided disk in the same fashion... MIGHT there be a problem with my disk drive? Have other people had this problem?
mark@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Mark Turner) (01/12/90)
I've been having similar problems with my SE/30. I think the "superdrive" is a piece of shit. I've blown away several very expensive HD disks, and lost some important files doing it. Yesterday it spewed out what _had_ been a perfectly good 800k disk. The usual message is: "The file ... could not be written and was skipped (disk error)." Once this happens, you might as well throw the disk away, because you'll never be able to format it again. Even after I erased the disk with a demagnetizer, it still wouldn't format. The only good thing I can say about the "superdrive" is that it reads PC disks okay. In their zeal to appeal to the PC market, Apple's engineers designed a drive that's more compatible with IBM than Macintosh. I guess the solution is to buy an external 800k drive. This works out very well for Apple: sell a shitty piece of hardware, then sell 'em even more hardware to make up for the deficiencies. (Another vital part of this strategy is to provide only 90 days of warranty. Most problems don't appear until after the warranty expires.) Thanks again, Apple. Mark Turner mark@hpcilzb.hp.com
david@jc3b21.UUCP (David Quarles) (01/14/90)
> I've blown away several very expensive > HD disks, and lost some important files doing it. Yesterday it spewed > out what _had_ been a perfectly good 800k disk. The usual message is: > "The file ... could not be written and was skipped (disk error)." > Once this happens, you might as well throw the disk away, because you'll > never be able to format it again. Even after I erased the disk with a > demagnetizer, it still wouldn't format. I've been using an SE/30 with the FDHD and have experienced a different problem --> once in a while (great while) it cannot read a floppy and asks if I want to format it (it says it is unreadable). Knowing better, I take the floppy out and tap it on one side then the other, pop it back in and the FDHD will read it ... weird. Another point --> don't toss that un-formattable floppy away yet. I have had a floppy not format normally (a message tells me it failed to format. When this happens I take our my Central Point Software's Copy II Mac (noone should be without it), and use the format option there. This usually cures it !! > The only good thing I can say about the "superdrive" is that it reads PC > disks okay. In their zeal to appeal to the PC market, Apple's engineers > designed a drive that's more compatible with IBM than Macintosh. I think there is more than that. =-=-= Email: david@jc3b21.UUCP -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dave =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= EOT
johnsone@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (01/15/90)
/* Written 1:31 am Jan 14, 1990 by david@jc3b21.UUCP*/ > Another point --> don't toss that un-formattable floppy away yet. I > have had a floppy not format normally (a message tells me it failed to > format. When this happens I take our my Central Point Software's Copy > II Mac (noone should be without it), and use the format option there. > This usually cures it !! I've had the same problem with the FHDH and did try using Copy II to fix it with no luck. I have had three or four disks not work in the last 4 weeks. At first I passed it off as poor disks, but perhaps Apple did make a mistake in design. Erik A. Johnson Grad Student, Aero/Astro Engineering University of Illinois johnsone@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu
laba-4ad@web-2b.berkeley.edu (Joseph Teo) (01/17/90)
In article <870287@hpcilzb.HP.COM> mark@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Mark Turner) writes: >I've been having similar problems with my SE/30. I think the >"superdrive" is a piece of shit. I've blown away several very expensive >HD disks, and lost some important files doing it. Yesterday it spewed >out what _had_ been a perfectly good 800k disk. The usual message is: >"The file ... could not be written and was skipped (disk error)." >Once this happens, you might as well throw the disk away, because you'll >never be able to format it again. Even after I erased the disk with a >demagnetizer, it still wouldn't format. > I've been having a lot of problems with my FDHD too. I've been using a IIGS for about 2 1/2 years until I switched over to the SE/30 about 6 months ago. A lot of my Apple II disks which I intended to reuse on the Mac became unreadable. Certainly a great deal more than the normal attrition rate. Everything seemed to die right away. I haven't got a single 3.5" disk failure until that stage for that matter. To be fair, a lot of my friends using the IIGS started to experience problems with their disks too. And I think the problem is more because of the difference between DD and HD disk formatting rather than Apple and IBM formats. The Mac also seemed to be a great deal more fuzzy about the condition of the disks than the Apple II.
wlw2286@ultb.isc.rit.edu (W.L. Ware) (01/20/90)
My FDHD in my IIci locked up the other I day. I put in a disk and KERCHUNK! So I took the whole thing apart and spun (or tried to) spin the motor, finally it started to spin (don't know why) so I put the whole thing back together and it worked! Any way considering the age of my computer (3 months) this is rediculous. Lance -- ************************************************************************ *W.L.Ware LANCEWARE SYSTEMS* *WLW2286%ritvax.cunyvm.cuny.edu Value Added reseller* *WLW2286%ultb.isc.rit.edu Mac and IBM Access. *