u-atgoat%ug.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Alan T Goates) (02/14/90)
I've had a whole bunch of 800K disks fail to initialize in the FDHD, but work just fine in an old, 800K drive. Solution: buy up someone's used 800K external for real cheap. AL
johnsone@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (02/14/90)
I know that there has been on-going discussions on the reliability of Apple's
FHDH. Has anyone found any solutions to the problems? I seem to be having it
kill about two or three disks a month since I bought it -- had another die this
morning. I'm getting pretty sick of this. Has Apple said anything, either
official or unofficial? Of course, if the stupid thing (SE/30, less than six
months old) was still under warranty I'd bring it in to the dealer.
When I try to erase the disk, it spits it out and gives an "Initialization
Failed" message or something like that. I've tried using a bit copier (CopyII)
to copy a "good" disk over the bad disk -- the bit copier doesn't have any
qualms about it, but when I insert the disk afterwards, the finder can't find
some of the files and others are "busy/locked" when they shouldn't be.
Is there any solution to this other than throwing the disk away? (Perhaps
throwing the FHDH away :-) )
Thanks in advance for the suggestions.
Erik A. Johnson
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
johnsone@uxh.cso.uiuc.eduwhit@milton.acs.washington.edu (John Whitmore) (02/14/90)
In article <88500007@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu> johnsone@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu writes: > >When I try to erase the disk, it spits it out and gives an "Initialization >Failed" message or something like that. I've tried using a bit copier (CopyII) >to copy a "good" disk over the bad disk -- the bit copier doesn't have any >qualms about it, but when I insert the disk afterwards, the finder can't find >some of the files and others are "busy/locked" when they shouldn't be. > The (small) write heads of the FDHD can reformat a disk, but don't entirely ERASE the disk when they do so. If the disk was previously written (even with test patterns at the factory), you might be writing atop other magnetized patterns, which results in a confusion of magnetized traces and can cause mistracking. The solution to this (and the 400k and 800k drives have the same problems sometimes) is to erase the disk. A bulk eraser has saved about three out of four won't-initialize disks for me. Once erased, initialize as usual. Alas, I don't know any easily available demagnetizers for you to use; I work in a Physics lab, and we've got a half dozen demagnetizers to choose from (average vintage: 1950). I am known for my brilliance, John Whitmore by those who do not know me well.
fozzard@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Richard Fozzard) (02/15/90)
We too have had these problems with every FDHD we have. 2 IIx's FDHDs blew up early on, scribbling all over any inserted disks. After replacement, they stopped destroying disks, but still remain unable to format many disks that Pluses, IIs, and SEs have no trouble with. My personal SE/30 has the same problem; I have a pile of unsuable disks (all of which work fine on non-FDHDs) as tall as my pile of usable ones (all 800k). Very frustrating. [Ah, hell: who needs floppies any more? I just got a syquest drive and am in seventh (mass storage) heaven. Nowadays, I just use floppies to play fetch with my dog :-)] ======================================================================== Richard Fozzard "Serendipity empowers" Univ of Colorado/CIRES/NOAA R/E/FS 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303 fozzard@boulder.colorado.edu (303)497-6011 or 444-3168
James.Zuchelli@f555.n161.z1.FIDONET.ORG (James Zuchelli) (02/28/90)
I've been having the same problem with my IIcx, lots of disks being made
permanently bad, no mac can initialize them. A friend at Apple says this has
been showing up on AppleLink but no answers are forthcoming, A local dealer
reports several of his customers are having the same problem. The only
suggestion I can suggest is contacting Apple or Apple Legal and telling them
that selling defective merchandise is/should be illegal. Sounds like apple
wants a RICO lawsuit for all their defective products.
good Luck
--
James Zuchelli - via FidoNet node 1:125/777
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