Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!dcl-cs!gdt!exspes
From: exspes@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P E Smee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Internal drive whirrs when external in use
Message-ID: <1990Aug21.084011.630@gdr.bath.ac.uk>
Date: 21 Aug 90 08:40:11 GMT
References: <5824@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Reply-To: P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Organization: University of Bristol c/o University of Bath
Lines: 16

In article <5824@castle.ed.ac.uk> tkld@castle.ed.ac.uk (K Davidson) writes:
>  The problem (is it, maybe it isn't, but it's annoying) is that every time
>I use drive b: , my internal drive a: starts spinning (but the light doesn't
>come on). The only cure seems to be removing any disk from drive a:
>  Is this common ? Is it software, hardware, me ? Can it be fixed ?

This is normal.  The drives share a single motor-on line, and both drives
respond to the motor-on signal.  (I presume that the ultimate reason is
so that you can spin-up a drive before you select it, to get it up to
speed.)  The quick answer is that it can't be fixed, I suspect, unless you
want to add some more (hairy) circuitry to the ST and probably modify TOS
as well.  Or, in other words, no, you learn to live with it.

-- 
Paul Smee, Computing Service, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UD, UK
 P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk - ..!uunet!ukc!bsmail!p.smee - Tel +44 272 303132