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From: djk@cs.mu.OZ.AU (David Keegel)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Floppy drive not working
Summary: Can Minix kill floppy drives?
Keywords: pc, msdos, minix, disk
Message-ID: <9117523.15390@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>
Date: 24 Jun 91 13:55:18 GMT
Article-I.D.: mulga.9117523.15390
Organization: Computer Science, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Lines: 28


	O/S		Minix 1.5ph
	Processor	386sx PC
	Floppy		5.25" 1.2Mb 
	Hard disk	part. 1=DOS 4.0; 2=/usr; 3=ram image
	Shoelace	boot from floppy; root copied from hd2.
	Extras		minix-386, virtual consoles

My floppy drive has recently stopped working. Strangely enough, this
corresponds to a recent period of lots of Minix use (like getting
minix-386 going, shoelace, vc, uucp). I seem to remember some news
about Minix doing nasty things to floppies, can someone help me out.

Symptoms: Minix won't boot (from floppy) -- mostly the disk just spins
and spins, no "Minix 1.5 ..." message. Sometimes I get that message
then "Disk error. Automatic reboot." My BIOS diags say stuff like CRC
error, and that my drive speed is 370 instead of 360.

Suppementary question: using shoelace to load /etc/system/* from the
boot floppy and then mounting root from ram image on hd3 causes my
floppy motor to stay on until I access fd0 (eg: df /dev/fd0). Is this
a known problem with shoelace? Can I stop it?

-- 
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A heathen is one who hasn't seen The Light.   |        David Keegel      |
| A heretic says it is a torch.                 |       djk@cs.mu.OZ.AU    |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+