[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] HELP! A590 Harddrive Problems.

c315-25@cs.UAlberta.CA (Huisman Kenneth M) (02/12/91)

I could use some assistance in determining what is wrong with my
A590.  In short, when loading *anything*, it comes up with
"Volume Workbench has a read/write error".  This is especially bad
when I boot off the hard drive, but the drive is somewhat stable
when I boot of a floppy.  When this problem first began to appear, I could
"resolve" it by repeatedly clicking on the 'retry' button, and eventually
the error would seemingly go away and the program would load.  Lately, this
method hasn't been at all successful.

I have seen suggestions on this newsgroup to buy quarterback tools, and
have it fix up the error problem.  Well, I DID buy quarterback tools, and
it doesn't work.  Every time I tell it to check for errors, it finds a
different number, and often it crashes when it is checking (or when it
tries to write the bad block file at the end).  

I have also tried using the hdtoolbox program that comes with the harddrive,
but to no avail.  That thing won't even reformat it without crashing.

I also tried taking it into an authorized repair shop.  They replaced the
power supply, charged me lots of money, and deemed it 'fixed'.  It still
doesn't work.

If you ask me, I think there is something wrong with the read/write head
on the disk itself, but I'd prefer it if someone out there who knows
more about these things (or has had a similar experience) would give me
their greatly valued opinion.

I would Prefer an E-mail Reply...

Thanks in Advance.

Ken Huisman
c315-25@manning.cs.ualberta.ca

jap@convex.cl.msu.edu (Joe Porkka) (02/13/91)

c315-25@cs.UAlberta.CA (Huisman Kenneth M) writes:

>I could use some assistance in determining what is wrong with my
>A590.  In short, when loading *anything*, it comes up with
>"Volume Workbench has a read/write error".  This is especially bad
>when I boot off the hard drive, but the drive is somewhat stable
>when I boot of a floppy.  When this problem first began to appear, I could
>"resolve" it by repeatedly clicking on the 'retry' button, and eventually
>the error would seemingly go away and the program would load.  Lately, this
>method hasn't been at all successful.


I had this problem too. Its a SOFTWARE problem, as in a BUG.

As I recall, something like the following will cuase it troubles...
	in a script file, in S:, say S:TEST, place a cd command.
	For example, in S:TEST, place "cd dh0:utilities"
	reboot, without executing S:startup-sequence,
	type "execute s:test" from the initial CLI, try
	executing something, like "dir", or notepad, and BOOM.


Basically, the solution is to put a "cd sys:" near the top of your
startup sequence, right after setpatch.
If that does not work for you, remove all "cd" commands from
your scripts, or any program that may do a "cd".