[alt.msdos.programmer] Compaq 386 Disk/FAT problems

mullen@sdsu.edu (Deborah Mullen) (08/17/89)

I am working on an application using a Compaq 386 that has been
modified to use a Western Digital disk controller board instead of the
multifunction io card.  Other modifications include two segate type 251
42M hard disks. No special harddisk device driver is being used. Every
now and then, (in the space of a few hrs) while running the application,
files (that are not being used) are getting corrupted ( parts of a cluster
will have changed data).  Also, running norton DT before and after running
the application, shows numerous new bad clusters.

My questions.  Is there any way software can corrupt the disk media? If
memory corruption occurs in the system area, would that mess up the FAT?
Could it be possible that a special harddisk driver needs to be installed?

The application does not crash.  It is only after stopping the program that
I discover the disk errors and it does not happen  all the time.

Any comments would be appreciated.
--Deborah Mullen