thompson@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu (11/03/88)
The environment: Mac SE w/20M internal HD 1 Meg RAM System 4.2 Finder 6.0 (but I use Powerstation mostly) (never use Multifinder) beaucoup INITS: Remember?, Soundmaster, MacsBug, JClock, Suitcase, etc. The problem: Only occurs when using the (floppy) drive heavily. For instance, twice it has happened while I was doing some disk reorganization (i.e., moving files between disks and whatnot). Once it occurred while initializing a batch of 50 disks (with Fast Formatter). The problem is really weird. The Disk Manager just freaks out. It will not read any disk I put in the drive, insisting it is "damaged", and asking if I want to format one-sided or two-sided. It will not format any disk, either, chugging away then insisting "Initialization Failed!" (though looking at the disk later shows it to be fine, and fully initialized). And also: IT WILL NOT FIND THE HARD DISK! For instance, if under Finder, trying to move a file onto or off it or even into a folder on the HD results in "Please insert the disk: HD20"!!!!! This is too weird... when I put in a random disk, it happily tells me it's damaged, then ejecting it still results in "Please insert the disk: HD20". In all cases, restarting or shutdowning solves it. The time it happened with Fast Formatter, I had just formatted about 35 of my 50 disks, when it told me for THREE disks in a row: "having trouble initializing this disk." Suspicious, I tried to Quit from the program, only to have the "Please insert the disk: HD20" message appear. Confused, and a bit scared, I hit the Programmer's Switch Restart Button, and it happily restarted, and my HD was fine. Suspiciously, so were the three supposedly error-filled disks. I ran Fast Foramtter again (doing nothing different than before) and re-initialized those three without a whimper, then went on to finish up my batch with no problems. Then last night it freaked under Finder. I was copying stuff from a RamDisk to a floppy (no, there was no RamDisk setup for FastFormatter), and it told me that the floppy I inserted was damaged. I ejected, and then tried to copy the stuff at least onto the HD so I wouldn't lose it on Restart. No go... I got the "Please insert the disk: HD20" deal again. Any disk I inserted got the "damaged" message, so I gave up and restarted. Then everything was fine... even re-did the RamDisk and finished copying stuff between disks (another hour or so of heavy use) without a glitch. What could it be? The only thing I can think of is a timing error, some kind of race in the Disk Manager, which only occurs under specified conditions, since I only seem to get it after heavy drive use, but it clears right up upon restart. Also, the concurrent problem with HD recognition leads me to believe it's a software, rather than hardware, problem. Any suggestions? Anyone heard of this before? It's rather annoying... - Mark Thompson "The University Neither Knows Nor erstwhile T.A. Wants To Know What I Am Saying." University of Illinois at U-C ARPANET: thompson@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu USMAILNET: 202 E Springfield #3B, Champaign IL 61820