Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wuarchive!udel!mizar!smedley
From: smedley@mizar.udel.edu (Trevor Smedley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Hard disk dead (possible problem with segment file in Stuffit)
Keywords: Help
Message-ID: <40991@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: 7 Jan 91 21:37:31 GMT
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Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.system
Organization: Univ of Delaware, CIS Department
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Please Note:  Although the following problem looks like it was caused by
Stuffit, it may not be the case.  Before I ran stuffit as described
below, I had a bomb because I tried to launch an application requiring
the FPU which my machine doesn't have (IIsi).  I returned to the finder
using ES in MacsBug, and didn't reboot.  I suppose this could have
caused the problem, but I don't think so.  If I get me harsd disk back,
I may try to duplicate the problem, but I doubt it -- I don't think I
want to have to send the thing in for reparis twice in one week.

I've been using Stuffit 1.5.1 for ages to decompress files from the net
and elsewhere, and for the first time decided to use it for compressing
files.  I believe that it is "free" if all you do use decompress, and
you have to register to use it for compression.  Well, if this had
worked I would have registered, but now all I want to do is get my hard
disk back!  Here's the story:

I had compressed a bunch of directories into a single (roughly 3.5meg)
archive, and was in the process of segmenting this file onto 5 floppies.
While it was doing this it kept asking for me to insert the disk "stuff"
which is the name of my hard disk.  At this point I suppose I should
have rebooted, but I kept going, and through insterting a random
selection of the disks I was using, and pressing command-. enough times,
I got it to finish.  I selected Shutdown, and went for lunch.  When I
came back, the machine would not boot.  If I put in a system floppy and
wait long enough, eventually it boots off the floppy, but does not find
the hard drive.  Disk First Aid does nothing, and if I try to use HDSC
Setup, I get "Drive Selection Failed.  Unable to read required
infomation from the disk."

Can anyone guess what is causing this before I bring it in for repairs? 
How about suggestions on the possibility of recovering the data?  I have
tried every shareware/freeware thing I could find to remount it.

By the way, the drive sounds different than normal.  It sounds "slower."
It also sounds like it is speeding up and slowing down whenever I run
something that tries to mount it.  I don't know if this is what is
happenning, but that's what it sounds like.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Trevor
smedley@udel.edu