Checksum: 53833
Path: utzoo!utgpu!dennis
From: dennis@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Dennis Ferguson)
Date: Sun, 18-Dec-88 15:06:01 EST
Message-ID: <1988Dec18.150601.8808@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>
Organization: Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto
Newsgroups: can.sun-stroke
Subject: Re: infant mortality in Fujitsu Swallows (M2372)
References: <1988Dec18.091253.5797@utstat.uucp>
Reply-To: dennis@gw.ccie.utoronto.ca (Dennis Ferguson)

I don't know if it's related, but we had a hell of a time
when we first installed Swallows on a Ciprico Rimfire
controller.  We eventually deduced that the disk was getting
scribbled on if we powered down the CPU with the disk readied.
The error messages most often said something about "Sector Not
Found".  It required a reformat to correct the trouble.  Frequently
the cylinder with the disk label would get taken out, though a
couple of times something further back on the disk was damaged.

After reformatting parts of the disk five or six times, we started
to get the idea and began to religiously write protect the disk
whenever we were going to power down the CPU.  We haven't had
any problems since.  Actually, write protecting the disk when
powering off the controller is probably a good idea in any
case (maybe this is why I've never heard anyone else complain
about this?), but we'd never owned a disk/controller combination
which didn't behave benignly when doing this and we'd gotten
lazy as a consequence.

Dennis Ferguson
University of Toronto