Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!nis!pwcs!stag!daemon
From: ardvar!krs@stag.UUCP (Kent Schumacher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Floppy Drive Problems?
Message-ID: <1989Dec3.112513.6005@stag.UUCP>
Date: 3 Dec 89 11:25:13 GMT
Sender: daemon@stag.UUCP (The devil himself)
Organization: Mindtools ST Access Group
Lines: 35

[Mark@sersun2.essex.ac.uk	 (Foster M) writes...]
> Greetings Programs,
>
(*blush*, I've never been called a program before...)
>
> [... some intro and background deleted ...]
> 
> The problem is this, if I boot from my usual boot disk, which brings up
> my usual GEM environment, the system refuses to see drive B. It will
> format drive B, and you can open it, but all you see is `0 bytes in 0
> items' irrespective of what's on the drive. Also if you try and copy a
> file from A to B a dialogue box pops up with, `This application cannot
> find the file or folder you just tried to access.'
> 
> Booting with a different disk appears to cure the problem, but, if I run
> Quikdex, drive B is only operating at 49% of what it should, normally I
> would expect to see 97%. (Drive A is behaving perfectly during all this
> BTW.) The other devation is the DMA test, which says B is operating at
> 197%, against the norm of 98%.
> 
> [... standard request for help hacked away ...]
>
> Mark Foster.

This is kind of a simplistic solution, but...

Most 5-1/4" floppy drives need their seek rate set to 6ms.  This is done
(usually) with an auto-file program.  Is it possible that your normal boot
disk is missing the seek-rate setting program?



  - Kent Schumacher               It's...   
    ardvar!krs@stag.UUCP             
    GEnie: K.SCHUMACHE1