[comp.sys.mac] Experience with Removable Media?

postmaster@mailcom.UUCP (Bernard Aboba) (08/19/88)

I have purchased a PL Infinity Drive, and am having severe problems with 
the 10 MB floppy media from Kodak.  So far, one out of every 3 diskettes 
I've purchased has had bad sectors that make them unreliable.  I don't 
know how Infinity drives lock out bad sectors (if they do), but my guess 
is that the drives assume perfect media, and for 10 MB removables, this 
isn't too likely.  So far I've lost 4 diskettes, or a total of 40 MB of 
data, and I'm dispairing of the drive ever becoming the reliable backup 
media I purchased it to be.
My suspicion is that this problem is very common among the new removable 
media.  For example, PL took the Infinity I rigid 3.5" 10 MB Drive they 
marketed (much like Jasmine's MegaDrive) off the market because of the 
unreliability of media.  
Are there any Jasmine Infinity users out there who can share their 
experiences?  It's my gut feeling that the problems are originating in 
the media, and not the drive, but I'm not 100% sure.  For example, I find 
that I cannot boot an Infinity Drive when it is daisy chained to a 
SuperMac XP40 drive via SCSI cable.  The "Welcome to Macintosh" logo 
comes up, and then starts shimmering wildly.  If I hit the programmer's 
switch, then it will boot off the Infinity, and both drives will come up. 
I've had lots of trouble booting a PL30 drive alongside a SuperMac, too.


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anson@spray.CalComp.COM (Ed Anson) (08/22/88)

In article <115.230C52E4@mailcom.UUCP> postmaster@mailcom.UUCP (Bernard Aboba) writes:
>
>I have purchased a PL Infinity Drive, and am having severe problems with 
>the 10 MB floppy media from Kodak.  So far, one out of every 3 diskettes 
>I've purchased has had bad sectors that make them unreliable.  I don't 
>know how Infinity drives lock out bad sectors (if they do)
  It's my understanding that the disk DRIVER is responsible for mapping
  out bac blocks. This looks like a software problem.

>  For example, I find 
>that I cannot boot an Infinity Drive when it is daisy chained to a 
>SuperMac XP40 drive via SCSI cable.
  Your problem could be the XP40. I have a SuperMac DF20 which is incompatible
  with Jasmine's DirectTape drive. There is some indication that SuperMac did
  some strange things in their SCSI design. Does anyone know anything about
  this?
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   Ed Anson,    Calcomp Display Products Division,    Hudson NH 03051
   (603) 885-8712,      anson@elrond.CalComp.COM