Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!mtuxo!mtgzz!drutx!druhi!dlm
From: dlm@druhi.ATT.COM (Dan Moore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: magic sac/translator? problems
Message-ID: <3944@druhi.ATT.COM>
Date: 22 Feb 89 16:41:57 GMT
References: <8902200430.AA04601@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: AT&T, Denver, CO
Lines: 83

in article <8902200430.AA04601@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, MAXG@SUVM.BITNET (Gerry Greenberg) says:
> I am having some problems with my magic sac set up and was hoping that
> someone might be able to help me.
> [...]
> I ran this system for about 6 months without the translator and had no
> problems...I bought the translator used and had no problem for 2 or 3
> months, but have recently started to have the following problem:  I will
> save a document and then quit Word.  When I get back to the Finder
> level, the double sided disk will sometimes need minor repairs, will
> sometimes have the same files that are on the disk in Drive A (while
> retaining the same number of bytes used as it did before I ran
> Word

	I can think of several things that might cause the problem you
are seeing:

	1) Your System file might be damaged.  A damaged System or
Finder can cause lots of very weird problems.  As a general rule,
whenever something weird starts happening replace your System and
Finder with copies from your original Mac System/Finder disk.

	2) You may be crossing System versions, ie. boot with a disk
with one version of System and then your work disk has a different
version on it.  Changing versions of System files while running is an
almost sure way to confuse a Mac.  Check that all the disks you will be
using have the same version of System.  (NOTE: The Mac will usually use
the System file on the disk the last application was run from.  Finder
will put the current System disk above any other disk icons on the
desktop.)

	3) The Mac may think the two disks are identical, so it doesn't
know which one to write on.  The Mac uses the disk name and it's
creation date to id a disk.  If two disks have the same name it may not
be able to figure out which is which even if the dates are different. 
Make sure your work disks have different names.

	4) The "Translator One" may be messing up the drive select.  I
doubt this is happening since you haven't had any problems when using ST
disks.  Unplug the Translator and see if the problem goes away.  If it
does call Data Pacific and arrange for them to repair the Translator.

> A little more info...I tried running the translator test on the
> drives...Drive A is OK, but Drive B doesn't seem able to Format Mac
> disks...I didn't think this should matter with regard to my other
> problem because I only use 800K disks that are in Magic format.  Drive B
> formats fine in Magic mode, and I have no trouble with it in ST mode.

	There are three things that would prevent the Translator from
formatting Mac disks in your double sided drive.  The drive could be
spinning at the wrong speed or the drive may contain a filter that
prevents non-MFM data from being written.  If the drive can write to Mac
formatted disks then it is most likely a speed problem.
	You might also being having problems with signal reflections in
the drive cables.  Try switching drive A and B (ie. make the double
sided drive A) and see if things get better.  Also try putting the
Translator at the end of the drive chain instead of between drive A and
the ST.

> as much as I did in connection with the problem I outlined above.  I
> have MacWrite on two disks and when I tried to open it on both disks, I
> got a message that the disks were too full to open a document.  Both
> disks showed that they had over 100K free, and I even copied a file to
> one disk, but still couldn't open MacWrite.  This situation, too, has

	It's possible that your copies of MacWrite are damaged and will
no longer load.  If you do have a damaged System file then they might
have been damaged by it.  Another possiblity is caused by how Mac MFS
directories are stored.  Mac MFS disks have a limited amount of space
available for directory entries.  The exact number of entries varies
based on the length of the file names, longer names allow fewer entries. 
MacWrite normally opens a temp file when run, it's possible that the
length of the temp file name was greater than the available directory
space.  Try copying MacWrite to a blank disk and see if it will run
there.  If it still doesn't work try recopying it from your original Mac
disk. 



				Dan Moore
				AT&T Bell Labs
				Denver
				dlm@druwy.ATT.COM
				dlm@druhi.ATT.COM