owenc@hpindda.cup.hp.com (Owen Cheung) (02/14/91)
I have been having problem with creating or replace large file on my harddisk. I ran Norton Utilities' disk doctor and everything was fine. I have a 105Meg Conner IDE drive with about 43% full, so I have plenty of space. However, when I tried to install new software, I always get a message, "Can't write to disk: abort, retry, or ignore" (I don't remember the exact wording, but it is the message that one would get when there is a hardware problem with the drive). The disk doctor reported the disk was fine. Another interesting thing is that I can create small files (i.e. saving 2 pages long text file). I even tried to replace over an existing file and still failed. All indications seem to imply that it is a hardware problem but my disk utilities doesn't confirm that. Any idea? Could it be a bad block on the disk? I was amazed that I didn't see any bad blocks when I went the disk doctor. I don't know much about IDE drive, but most other harddisk that I know has many bad blocks when the disk is that large. My system is only about 3 month old, and I have still have warrenty on the hardware. I just hate to bring the system in, and have my dealer tell me that the disk is fine when he runs disk doctor on it. My setup is the following: - ArkPro 33Mhz 64k cache 386 - 4 Meg ram - Genoa 6400 SVGA board - Conner IDE 105Meg disk (I don't the brand of the disk controller) - MS-DOS 4.01 (w/ 1 105meg partition), Windows 3.0 Quick reply is greatly appreciated because I am trying to set up my tax program to do my tax return.
sigma@jec302.its.rpi.edu (Kevin J Martin) (02/22/91)
costis@csi.forth.gr (Costis Aivalis) writes: >owenc@hpindda.cup.hp.com (Owen Cheung) writes: >>I have been having problem with creating or replace large file on my harddisk. >>I ran Norton Utilities' disk doctor and everything was fine. I have a 105Meg >>Conner IDE drive with about 43% full, so I have plenty of space. However, >>when I tried to install new software, I always get a message, "Can't write >>to disk: abort, retry, or ignore" (I don't remember the exact wording, but >Doesn't the handbook of you Conner say whether you are allowed to >low-level format your disk or not? >With RLL drives low-level format is done at the factory. >Since Norton Disk Doctor DOES low-level format portions of your disk, >they warn you no to "heal" RLL drives. I think you mean "IDE" instead of "RLL" there - this has been discussed here. Sometimes low-level formatting an IDE drive with software which is not aware of how to put the drive into "native mode" (ie, no translation of addresses) will mislabel some sectors, leading to errors or an unusable disk. Solution: use programs which are aware of IDE drives, especially ones which are aware of your particular model. Disk Manager comes with many new drives, and is usually the version for that drive. Problem: such programs are very rare, even these days. -- Kevin Martin sigma@rpi.edu
costis@csi.forth.gr (Costis Aivalis) (02/22/91)
sigma@jec302.its.rpi.edu (Kevin J Martin) writes: >I think you mean "IDE" instead of "RLL" there - this has been discussed >here. Sometimes low-level formatting an IDE drive with software which is Correct me if i'm wrong: I was left with the impression that the Conner IDE drive uses RLL encoding. +-----------------------------+-------------------------------+ | Costis Aivalis | costis@csi.forth.gr | +-----------------------------+-------------------------------+
ching@brahms.amd.com (Mike Ching) (02/24/91)
In article <7Z`&Y+@rpi.edu> sigma@jec302.its.rpi.edu (Kevin J Martin) writes: >costis@csi.forth.gr (Costis Aivalis) writes: >>Correct me if i'm wrong: I was left with the impression that the >>Conner IDE drive uses RLL encoding. > >Now this sort of thing, as far as I've been able to find out, is usually >a total mystery. Which manufacturers use which encodings on their drives? >Are they all secretly RLL models? > One of the advantages of embedded controllers like SCSI and IDE is that the electronics can be tailored to the characteristics of the drive and common encodings don't have to be used. The transfer rate of small Conner drives indicate that they're RLL or ARLL. The large drives have caches which mask the transfer rates but it's reasonable to assume that they also use sophisticated encoding schemes. Mike Ching
phil@brahms.amd.com (Phil Ngai) (02/26/91)
ching@brahms.amd.com (Mike Ching) writes: >One of the advantages of embedded controllers like SCSI and IDE is that >the electronics can be tailored to the characteristics of the drive and >common encodings don't have to be used. The transfer rate of small Conner >drives indicate that they're RLL or ARLL. The large drives have caches >which mask the transfer rates but it's reasonable to assume that they >also use sophisticated encoding schemes. Another advantage is that they can use Zone Bit Recording, where the transfer rate depends on which cylinder you're on, and the "geometry" is a variable. -- Save water! Use disposable diapers.
davidh@garfield.cs.mun.ca (David Hansen) (02/27/91)
owenc@hpindda.cup.hp.com (Owen Cheung) writes Try running SPINRITE, a commercially available do-it-all disk doctor which requires no knowledge. About $100. >I have been having problem with creating or replace large file on my harddisk. >I ran Norton Utilities' disk doctor and everything was fine. I have a 105Meg >Conner IDE drive with about 43% full, so I have plenty of space. However, >when I tried to install new software, I always get a message, "Can't write >to disk: abort, retry, or ignore" (I don't remember the exact wording, but >it is the message that one would get when there is a hardware problem with >the drive). The disk doctor reported the disk was fine. Another interesting >thing is that I can create small files (i.e. saving 2 pages long text file). >I even tried to replace over an existing file and still failed. All indications >seem to imply that it is a hardware problem but my disk utilities doesn't >confirm that. Any idea? >Could it be a bad block on the disk? I was amazed that I didn't see any >bad blocks when I went the disk doctor. I don't know much about IDE drive, >but most other harddisk that I know has many bad blocks when the disk is >that large. >My system is only about 3 month old, and I have still have warrenty on the >hardware. I just hate to bring the system in, and have my dealer tell me >that the disk is fine when he runs disk doctor on it. >My setup is the following: >- ArkPro 33Mhz 64k cache 386 >- 4 Meg ram >- Genoa 6400 SVGA board >- Conner IDE 105Meg disk (I don't the brand of the disk controller) >- MS-DOS 4.01 (w/ 1 105meg partition), Windows 3.0 >Quick reply is greatly appreciated because I am trying to set up my tax >program to do my tax return.
keithe@sail.LABS.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson) (03/07/91)
In article <1645@ariadne.csi.forth.GR> costis@csi.forth.gr (Costis Aivalis) writes: > >With RLL drives low-level format is done at the factory. > **BRAAACKKKK*** Wrong!! (but thanks for playing :-) (Robin Williams) (Adaptec) RLL controllers have formatting functions built in to their onboard BIOS. null *kEITHe()