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From: cfchiesa@bsu-cs.UUCP (Christopher F. Chiesa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit,comp.misc
Subject: Disk R/W problem - causes?
Message-ID: <1448@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 8-Nov-87 13:53:49 EST
Article-I.D.: bsu-cs.1448
Posted: Sun Nov  8 13:53:49 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Nov-87 04:13:40 EST
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 42
Keywords: glitch
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.atari.8bit:983 comp.misc:1594


I've just gotten thoroughly disgusted with my Percom AT-88 SS/SD 5 1/4" floppy
drive.  It's been screwing up my disks more and more over the past few months,
and I finally "caught it in the act" today.

  Situation: I copied a large (200+ sectors) file onto a disk which turned 
out not to have enough free sectors (neglected to check in advance), resulting
in error 162 - "Disk Full."  Issued "DELETE filename.ext" command.  Normal 
I/O sounds, then repeated "buzz-clunk" of "unreadable sector."  Examined disk,
found sectors 685 and up unreadable with Error 144, "invalid 'DONE' byte".
Tried to patch file by adding next-sector field of 00 (end-of-file), but
was unable to write formerly-readable sectors.  Was THEN unable to READ 
formerly-readable sectors.  Drive had turned a "good" sector into a "bad" one
right before my eyes.  Has made many of my disks unreliable.

Error appears to occur primarily with high-end (600 and up) sectors, when it
occurs (I was able to write that file to begin with, but glitched when trying
to alter it later).  NO problem at ANY time with low and mid-range (360's)
sectors.

   1) I'm hoping this is just a case of a dirty head: hasn't been cleaned
      or otherwise maintained since I bought the drive in mid-1983.  Can
      anyone offer opinions on the likelihood of this being the cause? 

   2) Can anyone recommend a drive-head-cleaning procedure or product (with 
      vendor info, if possible)?

   3) I use a Q-Tip saturated in rubbing alcohol to clean the heads of my
      audio equipment; would this be satisfactory for the disk head, or is
      it more delicate?  Would like to know before just TRYING it.

(Would someone, somewhere, please just plain REPLY to this, so that I know 
it's being seen?  I've NEVER had a response to ANYTHING I've posted in the
whole time (a month or two) I've been posting to the net.  Are you reading
me at all, world?)


Appreciatively,

Chris Chiesa, Senior, CS Dept, Ball State University, Muncie, IN

(317) 285-1517 work
(317) 288-2957 home (weird answering message but don't panic - it's just me)