werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (11/11/86)
several times many of us have reported about copying files on the DeskTop and getting *weird* errors and bombs. Well, this weekend, we may have shed a little light into this *DARK* corner ... a little history: often when copying folders with *LOTS* of files and many sub-folders by "dragging" on the desktop you get one or several messages to the effect "this/several files could not be copied", usually followed by a bomb 002, but not always. some friends had gotten suspicious (for reasons not of interest) of the OMTI hard disk controller card most older hard disks are using, so they set up a test where they performed the identical drag-copies with drives with either OMTI or Adeptec controller cards. Guess what? Yep, the Adeptec-controlled systems gave no problem, but the OMTI-ones failed consistently !!! One Caveat: I was not there but received this report first hand. This might explain why Apple (among others) have dropped the OMTI and are using Adeptecs now ... Let me throw out another bone to chew on: DataFrame-20s also migrated from using OMTI and 5-1/4" drives to *BETTER* and *SMALLER* ..... And while I'm at it: Past weekend I had decided to "fix" whatever needed fixing on my DF-20, where some folders opened *eeeveerrrr sooooo ssssllloooowly" indicating that something was wrong (but what???). Backing up the disk to tape (LoDown-60Mbyte) had consistently failed in the past, so I drag-copied folders (sub-folders, not on the top level) to another hard-disk. things went more or less smoothly. then I ran DiskExpress, which reported *BAD NEWS*: "something is wrong; directory and file block counts don't match". (without saying what to do about it, of course). Oh well, initialization time, anyway, that should fix it - I thought. Well, I did initialize and reformat, and then started dragging the files/folders back onto the DF. Ah yes, I got courageous and tried to copied things by folder only ONE level down from the DeskTop. BOMB city: "some files could not be copied" (which files, I screamed) - then, after clicking OK: caboooom, BOMB 002. (nice, why do you ask my OK for that?) questions like these from people that you have "convinced" to buy Macintoshes really hurt - is there someone at Apple whose job it is to get yelled at by frustrated users? (-: well, after rebooting, I checked around and realized that everything was copied fine to a level 5 folders down; below that all folders were empty. I didn't think that there were very many that deep, but I sure was wrong. it is no fun, *ABSOLUTELY NONE*, to find out which files are missing and then to copy those. Done with that I ran DiskExpress again which reported that "ALL WAS WELL" ... curious about First Aid (and never trusting a computer program reporting "All is well") I checked the disk with the latter program: "Something is Wrong - shall I fix it?" (WHAT IS WRONG? I yelled WHAT DO YOU INTEND TO DO?) courageous/disgusted as was, I said: "sure, go ahead, ruin or make my day" .. whatever it did, it did it quickly and effectively. no further problems since (can you see the program that is written to simply report an imaginary problem and then "fixing" it - all to justify its price? no-no, I'm pretty sure that First Aid fixed something; I'm just full of cynicism about the matter) I guess, I have to read the manuals for MacExpress and First Aid after all; how unMACish ..(-: