schmid@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Peter Schmid) (10/11/90)
First, the specifics:
Mac IIX; 8Mb; 40Mb Quantum Hard Drive;
Apple 13" Color Monitor and 8 bit High Rez card;
HP Deskwriter; Hayes 1200 external modem;
System 6.0.5; After Dark; ATM 2.0; Fish 2.0;
Disinfectant 2.2
Now, the problem:
Last night while unstuffing the latest tech-notes from Apple.COM,
I experienced a horrible system crash. I was running MultiFinder
with Stuffit and Unstuffit (since there are two .sit files in
this batch of notes), and left the machine alone for a bit. Upon
return, the screen saver (After Dark) had kicked in. When I then
moved the mouse to bring back the desktop, etc. to the screen, all
went black with just the white outline of the arrow/pointer on the
screen. No problem, I thought, I'll just power down using the
button on the back of the cpu box and restart. Unfortunately, the
floppy with the tech-notes.hqx file was still in the floppy drive,
and as you may have guessed, the machine didn't boot, displaying
a floppy disk icon with an X flashing on it. Hmmm. I then booted
using the system tools disk, and lo and behold, my hard drive was
missing. The HD Setup application told me that it could not find
any SCSI drives attached to the machine. Very strange. Upon
opening the box and verifying that the hard drive cables were
properly connected, I rebooted. The hard drive light would blink
some, then the floppy disk with '?' icon appeared. Methinks I'm
really screwed now. So, I unplugged the machine and left it
overnight, planning on taking it to be serviced in the morning.
Happily, I tried to boot this AM, and viola, the hard drive
booted as if nothing unusual happened.
What I would like to know is:
1) has anyone else experienced this before,
2) what may have happened/what can I do to avoid this,
3) what software tools should I have/acquire to help analyze
the situation and recover from it if it happens again.
Any help/pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks -- pete <schmid@plasma.Colorado.EDU>ken@slhisc.uucp (Ken Stamm) (10/11/90)
In article <27857@boulder.Colorado.EDU> schmid@plasma.Colorado.EDU (Peter Schmid) writes: >floppy with the tech-notes.hqx file was still in the floppy drive, >and as you may have guessed, the machine didn't boot, displaying >a floppy disk icon with an X flashing on it. Hmmm. I then booted >using the system tools disk, and lo and behold, my hard drive was >missing. The HD Setup application told me that it could not find >opening the box and verifying that the hard drive cables were >properly connected, I rebooted. The hard drive light would blink >some, then the floppy disk with '?' icon appeared. Methinks I'm >really screwed now. So, I unplugged the machine and left it >overnight, planning on taking it to be serviced in the morning. >Happily, I tried to boot this AM, and viola, the hard drive >booted as if nothing unusual happened. > >What I would like to know is: > 1) has anyone else experienced this before, I also have been able on rare occasions and unintentionally to place the SCSI controller on Quantum drives into a state where they seem for all the world "busted", until one gets the bright idea to cycle their power. It is very scary the first time it happens. It's very rare, and cycling the power to the drive (or entire system) always does the trick for me. Ken Stamm (sun!gotham!slhisc!ken) -- Ken Stamm (ken@slhisc.uucp, sun.com!gotham!slhisc!ken) (212)341-3868 Shearson Lehman Brothers, 390 Greenwich St. 4W, New York NY 10013 Views expressed here are meaningless to the above corporation.
drg@mdaali.cancer.utexas.edu (David Gutierrez) (10/12/90)
In article <1990Oct11.052227.11784@slhisc.uucp> ken@slhisc.uucp (Ken Stamm) writes: > I also have been able on rare occasions and unintentionally to place > the SCSI controller on Quantum drives into a state where they seem for all > the world "busted", until one gets the bright idea to cycle their power. That happens here, too. I can usually fix it by booting the offending machine from a floppy and then doing a Restart. If that doesn't work, I boot from the floppy again and can usually mount the hard disk with the SCSIProbe cdev. You can get SCSIProbe at sumex and other places. David Gutierrez drg@mdaali.cancer.utexas.edu "Only fools are positive." - Moe Howard
russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) (10/12/90)
In article <4186@lib.tmc.edu> drg@mdaali.cancer.utexas.edu (David Gutierrez) writes: >In article <1990Oct11.052227.11784@slhisc.uucp> ken@slhisc.uucp (Ken >Stamm) writes: >> I also have been able on rare occasions and unintentionally to place >> the SCSI controller on Quantum drives into a state where they seem for >all >> the world "busted", until one gets the bright idea to cycle their power. > >That happens here, too. I can usually fix it by booting the offending >machine from a floppy and then doing a Restart. If that doesn't work, I >boot from the floppy again and can usually mount the hard disk with the >SCSIProbe cdev. You can get SCSIProbe at sumex and other places. These are two separate problems. In the second case, the Mac has somehow lost track of the drive, and playing with the Mac will get it back. In the first case, the drive goes off into never-neverland, for reasons unknown. Attempts to use SCSIProbe result in 'No data, device busy'. Playing with the mac won't fix this-- you have to kill the power to the drive. -- Matthew T. Russotto russotto@eng.umd.edu russotto@wam.umd.edu .sig under construction, like the rest of this campus.
minow@mountn.dec.com (Martin Minow) (10/13/90)
... various comments about a Quantum disk that goes into "never-never land": I'm having the same problem with the internal drive of a brand-new Mac-IIci. I couldn't get the disk to fail when I stripped all other scsi devices off the bus (and ran Apple's hard disk test overnight). I suspect, therefore, that it might be a bus-noise problem (I have a 12 foot bus with a CD rom and two additional hard drives). If I can duplicate it with the Apple CD rom drive attached, I'll assume it's a warranty problem, otherwise, I'll probably have to deal with it myself. As always, "exit editors often" and take frequent backups. Martin.