Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!psuvax1!vu-vlsi!cbmvax!grr From: grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: StepRate ... a utility that makes your floppies FASTER! Message-ID: <2502@cbmvax.UUCP> Date: Wed, 14-Oct-87 16:22:25 EDT Article-I.D.: cbmvax.2502 Posted: Wed Oct 14 16:22:25 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 16-Oct-87 05:54:55 EDT References: <1895@gryphon.CTS.COM> Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA Lines: 35 Keywords: grinding noise pitch control benchmarks sausages maybe In article <1895@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: > In article <1794@cadovax.UUCP> keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle) writes: > > >This steprate thing seems like basically a good idea. Not for speed, > >mind you, but because I can't stand how the drives sound. They SOUND > >like they're being stepped too slow, and that's what drives me nuts. > > > >However, are we absolutely sure that running at a higher step rate will > >not cause a higher incidence of munged disks due to too marginal a > >setting? I'd love to try it, but no way until I am reasonably assured > >it isn't going to munch my critical 'C' source disks etc. > > How can it wreck disks ? It wants something from track nn, so it issues > the approporiate number of 'steps' to the drive, after which it reads > it to make sure it is on the track it thinks it is on. If it is not, > this is a SEEK ERROR, and it should retry, otherwise its positioned > over the correct cylander. > > Is this not the way it works ? Gee, that sounds like the way it is supposed to work, and probably does. However relying on system error recovery to compensate for your systematic optimism sounds like one of those well greased paths to purgatory. Most likely, the system will recover from the errors and hide them from you until one day you have a brownout or something, and then you'll wonder why you start getting a lot of random errors on the purple disks in your 7'th drive that's worked good since the day you kludged it in. Proceed with due caution... -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: out to lunch... Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)