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From: nather@ut-sally.UUCP (Ed Nather)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: XT Problems
Message-ID: <8899@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 1-Sep-87 11:46:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.8899
Posted: Tue Sep  1 11:46:19 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Sep-87 03:51:57 EDT
References: <1246@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <768@custom.UUCP> <202@ttrdd.UUCP> <1319@faline.bellcore.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 22
Summary: familiar symptoms ...

In article <1319@faline.bellcore.com>, gtchen@faline.bellcore.com (George T. Chen) writes:
> Help.  I have an XT clone with a 20M hard disk problem.  When I first turn
> of the computer after leaving it off for a while (like in the morning or
> when I get home from work) DOS is unable to read from the harddisk.  When
> I try booting from a floppy, I'm still unable to access my C: drive.  I keep
> getting a "Invalid drive specification"  [...]
> 
> What's going on?  Could there be a problem where the harddisk actually
> needs the machine to be warm?

The same set of symptoms appeared on my XT.  After a lot of flopping around
which I won't describe, I removed the connectors to the hard disk and cleaned
all the contacts, which looked a bit scuzzy to me.  I used a rubber eraser
till they appeared shiny again.  When I re-connected them everything worked
and has been working ever since.  I don't *know* if it's the same thing, but
it might be worth a try ...

-- 
Ed Nather
Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
{allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather
nather@astro.AS.UTEXAS.EDU