Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!gatech!prism!vsserv!geomag!prem
From: prem@geomag.fsu.edu (Prem Subrahmanyam)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: dead external drive......AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH
Message-ID: <180@vsserv.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 10 Sep 89 18:00:30 GMT
Sender: news@vsserv.scri.fsu.edu
Reply-To: prem@geomag.gly.fsu.edu (Prem Subrahmanyam)
Organization: Florida State University Computing Center
Lines: 30


  I'm sure this problem has happened many times before, but, well, now
  it's happened to me and I would like some suggestions.  My df1: drive
  has for several weeks seemed to have more of its share of read/write
  errors.  I just chalked it up to bad disks (they're tan, not blue...
  you know how that goes...) and diskdoctored/reformatted/reused them.
  Well, today, when I pop in any disk that I know is readable (verified
  by inserting in df0: and looking around), df1: makes those nasty 3 clicks
  like I'm inserting a brand new unformatted disk in it, and tells me it's
  not a DOS disk.  Well, I beg to differ, but.....

  In any case, for others who have had similar problems, where has the 
  problem been diagnosed as coming from, from the Amiga, or the drive.
  The Amiga I have is an old A1000 (don't know if it's pre-halfbrite or not),
  while the drive is a several month old Amiga 1010 drive.  Considering 
  relative age, would it be safe to guess that it's the Amiga that's 
  ill, or do you think it's the drive.  I know empirically that there are
  a number of ways that I could test and find out, but I'd like to get
  some advice before dragging my whole computer into the shop to have
  it serviced, tested, or whatever.

  To let you know of my exact setup.  I've got an A1000, with an A1010
  external drive, and a borrowed MicroBotics 2Meg external board.  Of
  course, I've got a standard 1048 monitor.  Now, when I insert disks
  into df1:, they come up "readable", but all have read/write errors.
  Yet, the read/write errors seem to go away when I put the disk in
  df0:.  Geez, what a bummer!!!!!!!!

  Anxiously awaiting all replies.........
  ---Prem Subrahmanyam (prem@geomag.gly.fsu.edu)