knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (03/21/87)
A while back, one of the guys who helped polish up Dave Lewis'
Newdisk posted a little patch to fix head-banding on drives
that were jumpered to load heads on select (not just motor on).
Simple patch -- you removed a couple lines of assembler source
that deselected the drive instantly.
Well, you may need it! I found that it is extremely unreliable
to write to such a drive with the deselect code intact.
I should say reliable -- you get about 75% bad sectors written
on a BACKUP! When I write (including backup) to another drive
with no head-load solenoid, I have no problems.
Thought you'd like to know that ripping out those two lines
of code is a "mandatory option" if you have your drives jumpered
that way. Hmmm, this explains why my Coco3 has had problems
writing disks--its drive is head-loaded too.
Guess I'll send Dave his $10 -- after I finish rebuilding a half
dozen boot files ... mike k
PS: Has anyone got a DISTO parallel interface to work reliably
on OS9? Or a DISTO controller to work on Coco III?
--
Mike J Knudsen ...ihnp4!ihwpt!knudsen Bell Labs(AT&T)
>>>DRUGS are for WIMPS who can't handle SCIENCE FICTION<<<jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (03/24/87)
I've been using my Disto controller on a CoCo3 using the Co Co3 version of CDOS. More specifically, I've been using it with OS-9. It works. The only problem is the previously noted inability to use single density, which is common to many other controller. Cheers! -- Jim O. PS. I also have OS-9 Level II. I got it this afternoon and have it partly installed on my CoCo3. It didn't go completely smoothly. I'll say more later. It *does* look good so far despite my problems. -- Jim Omura, 2A King George's Drive, Toronto, (416) 652-3880 ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura Byte Information eXchange: jimomura