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From: owenc@hpindda.cup.hp.com (Owen Cheung)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Weird disk problem.  Help!!!
Message-ID: <51440007@hpindda.cup.hp.com>
Date: 13 Feb 91 21:02:02 GMT
Organization: HP Information Networks, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 33


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.