jjs@PRC.Unisys.COM (James Solderitsch) (07/26/90)
First, my operating characteristics: Mac Plus, 2.5 meg, syquest drive on line, using ATM 1.2, Suitcase 1.2.5, Disinfectant init, and a couple of other (so far very stable) inits, Finder and Multifinder, and a brand new 105 meg Quantum external with the 64k cache (manufacturer is Total Peripheral Systems out of Massachusetts, obtained through a local mail order outfit). Both of the drives have internal SCSI termination (with the Quantum's having been set at the factory) and the syquest's being switchable. Currently the SCSI chain is: Mac to syquest to quantum, with the syquest's termination turned off. The quantum is the boot drive. Previously, my boot disk was a GCC FX/20 which I wanted to retire due to its small size and relatively slow speed which the Quantum replaced. Everything was real stable until the Quantum was acquired 2 days ago. The Quantum itself seems to be working ok. It came pre-formatted with 6.04 and I copied over all of the files from the FX/20 successfully and updated the system on the quantum with Font/DA mover to get the fonts and DA's the way I wanted them. However, since the changeover there have been a bunch of glitches and a few bombs. My wife has been using FullWrite 1.1 for her thesis and until the changeover, FullWrite behaved reliably with nary a crash. Over the past 2 days, there have been crashes, damaged files (i.e. one that we thought had been saved reliably, but which FullWrite later couldn't open (threw up a an ID=2 system error, and which the FullWrite Recover program found damaged with a premature EOF)) etc. Since the one new item in all of this is the disk, I suppose it could be the culprit. I have a 30 day return policy so that will be my last resort. But... what might be going on here? My system is now maintaining 3 caches: the ATM font cache which I think is 128k, the Mac System RAM cache which is 96k, and the Quantum's own 64k cache. Could it be a case of one cache too many? How about the difference in size between the Mac and Quantum caches? Should I now turn off the Mac's own cache since the Quantum is doing its own caching? (I use floppies only for archival purposes). I am also suspicious of the SCSI chain -- anyone want to cast suspicion this way. So far, only FullWrite has been involved in the crashes, so I can suspect it as well (except that it has performed reliably until now). Any suggestions, or similar stories greatly appreciated. Jim jjs@prc.unisys.com