cbs@geac.UUCP (Chris Syed) (07/07/89)
Please forgive dumb question from new user of old system...
I just gone from 3.0 Xenix to 3.4 on my Intel 310 and found, to my
horror, that all my tarred disks - like /etc, /usr... give me
soft error - CRC checks in the first few tracks...
There dosen't seem to be a problem reading & writing new stuff,
but here's a mystery - one floppy - with my own directory - loads fine!
Unfortunately, the one with /etc/termcap on it don't -- making it
rather nasty to use the console! :-) :-) (the joke's on me!)
Any ideas?
---
{uunet!jtsv16,utgpu,yunexus}!geac!cbs | "One of the most difficult of the
cbs@geac.UUCP (Chris Syed) | philosopher's tasks is to find out
or {csri.toronto.edu,lsuc}!utflis!syed | where the shoe pinches."-Wittgenstein
tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff) (07/08/89)
In article <7606@geac.UUCP> cbs@geac.UUCP (Chris Syed) writes: > I just gone from 3.0 Xenix to 3.4 on my Intel 310 and found, to my > horror, that all my tarred disks - like /etc, /usr... give me > soft error - CRC checks in the first few tracks... > There dosen't seem to be a problem reading & writing new stuff, > but here's a mystery - one floppy - with my own directory - loads fine! The easiest guess is that they rebuilt the floppy drivers for 3.4 using new, stricter timing parameters for things like head settle and inter-track. When this works it has the effect of improving diskette performance slightly, which is why it's tempting to do it. But marginal disks that used to read successfully can break like a soggy pretzel when you change the timings. Something like this happened to me under iRMX86 on my 310. Fortunately I was able to go in with the Interactive Configuration Utility (ICU) and fudge the duib's with slacker numbers, rebuild and read my disks OK. I don't know whether your Xenix gives you this kind of luxury. If not, you may have to ask your FAE to gen you a version. A little drive maintenance might not hurt either since the marginality of the disks in question might derive in part from head dirt or azimuth problems. Good luck. -- "My God, Thiokol, when do you \\ Tom Neff want me to launch -- next April?" \\ uunet!bfmny0!tneff