s25y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (02/09/91)
Hi all:
In a recent post to this newsgroup, I described some problems I had been
having with my 1571 drive, wherein it had difficulty formatting double sided
disks and writing to the backs of double sided disks. I would like to thank
all those who replied to my post.
The gist of the comments I have been getting is that such behavior is normal
for older ROM 1571s, and that I need the newer ROM if I want these problems
fixed. However, I believe that this is not actually the problem, as I have
owned this drive from new, and it has only recently developed these problems.
The case had never been opened, and the ROMs have never been touched, but I
don't actually know which ones it came with.
Any further ideas would be appreciated, as it is a long way to the nearest
Commodore service center.
Thanks,
Marc Fraioli
s25y@vax5.cit.cornell.eduejf@nvuxl.UUCP (Ed Flaherty) (02/11/91)
vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes: > In a recent post to this newsgroup, I described some problems I had been > having with my 1571 drive, wherein it had difficulty formatting double sided > disks and writing to the backs of double sided disks. I would like to thank > all those who replied to my post. > The gist of the comments I have been getting is that such behavior is normal > for older ROM 1571s, and that I need the newer ROM if I want these problems > fixed. However, I believe that this is not actually the problem, as I have > owned this drive from new, and it has only recently developed these problems. > The case had never been opened, and the ROMs have never been touched, but I > don't actually know which ones it came with. > Any further ideas would be appreciated, as it is a long way to the nearest > Commodore service center. > > Marc Fraioli We have had a problem with the 1571 (built into our C128D) that sounds similar, though not identical, to your problem. We download files from Qlink onto a single sided disk, since the Qlink software puts the drive into 1541 mode, and I haven't figured out any way to use 2-sided disks to download. When we figure out where we want to put the files, we copy them from one or more source disks (both single and double sided) onto a double sided target disk. If there are enough files to almost fill the target disk, it gets trashed out: some files don't show up in the directory, total blocks files+free don't add to 1328. If we validate ("COLLECT") the disk at this point, the missing blocks are recovered, but the missing files are gone for good. This has happened no matter what method we use to copy: C128 DOS wedge, Maverick v5, GEOS+REU, single file copy program from C64 system disk, ... It seems to happen only when both single and double sided disks are involved, and when the target disk ends up more than half-filled. We have virtually stopped using double sided disks nowadays, to avoid this frustrating problem. I have no idea which ROMs are in my 1571 in the C128D. The drive is very noisy, but doesn't seem to be out of alignment (it still reads very old disks just fine). We have NOT had problems formatting double sided disks, except when we try to use Maverick v5 to do it. It totally trashes the disk: the directory shows garbage like "20000 CKS FREE". I called Maverick product support about this, and they said "Oh, the 1571s are just flaky hardware, especially the ones in C128Ds." (Wonderful.) Ed Flaherty Bellcore