Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!UICVM.BITNET!U46050
From: U46050@UICVM.BITNET ("JOHN ZAFIRIS")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: (none)
Message-ID: <8903170551.AA08529@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 17 Mar 89 04:25:13 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 93

Hello out there in NETland.  I have a passing interest, well more than
passing since my hard drive now has a bunch of junk on it (corrupted
files, not lousy programs... ok, I have those too) in information
concerning FATSPEED.  This is a great program when it works-- and I am
not saying that it does not-- I am just implying it (will that stick in
court?).  Anyway, at the time I started using FATSPEED (when TOS choked
at having to shuffle slowly through >12Meg of files to find some free
space to do some writing) I had not experienced any problems with my HD
(ICD card, Adaptec 4070 & a Seagate ST251-1 [that is c65Meg @28msec...
yeah I know... the 251 is MFM not RLL... it should not work... it has
worked great for months now].  Then I start to see important things like
my >40K machine code source files (that I have been working on for 6
months on and off...) corrupted and the assembler choking on them.
Well, I get upset.

I first changed drivers from Supra's to ICD's (the one that does
verifies).  Soon thereafter the ICD gives me little <WRITE ERROR #0F23>
messages on the bottom of the screen.  Note the number:  that is
3875 write errors on the same sector!  Why only 3875 you say?... I reset
the machine after c20 minutes of waiting!  Anyway, I figure that a
platter in the HD has a hole in it (who knows, maybe it has worms :~) so
I do a low level format after I back up with Turtle (Does anybody know
why Turtle is called turtle?).  I formatted using ICD's software.  It
reported 5 bad sectors that I assume it marked as bad.  Those 5 however
did not correspond to the bad sector list stuck on the drive by Seagate
(different heads etc.) what gives?  Anyway, I overlook this
inconsistency (the first time I formatted I entered Seagate's bad
sectors like a good little boy).  I then recopy all the data I had
backed up back to the HD.  Three days later (why is it that Turtle will
back up the whole HD automatically but does not have the facility to
restore the data automatically? (I know it is PD and I am not
complaining or anything... Ok, so I am, sue me).  In the process of
restoring the data from the Turtle created floppy to the HD (from inside
the Universal File Selector) I get that nice little virtual hello from
ICD: "<WRITE ERROR #ALOT>".  Again I reset, try again etc.  I get mad, I
scream, I throw computer peripherals at squirels (what did he say Mable?).
In between denting squirels I inadvertantly copy the files I was having trouble
with using the desktop (I had actually not forgotten to use it!  I guess
it really is intuative ;~) and it worked! no errors.  So I sadly abandon
UNIVERSAL and do the rest of the copying with the desktop.  I manage
to restore all the data without hearing a peep from ICD's driver.  I am
all happy and marveling at how a little bug in somebody's code could
erase three days of my life when... yes! I get those fascinating little <WRITE
ERROR etc. from the driver again.  I get mad, kill a couple of squirels
and think... who can I b*tch at...  "I know, call ICD and give then a
piece of my mind" (I know... not too much).  I do and they are surprised
that such a thing would happen but could not suggest anything.

I should note that I don't think this is a hardware problem or some
flaky chip in the interface cards or (more likely) Atari's DMA chip
because the problem is not intermittent.  It always happens on the same
sector.  One would think that if there is a bad sector the formatter
would have marked it so and there would not be anything left for the
driver to pick up.  If there is noise, I could understand a bad verify
but noise does not persist for 20 minutes nor does it appear for only
certain special sectors.  Also, shouldn't a driver that does a verify
give up trying after a while and mark a sector bad instead of stopping
the computer dead?  I hope ICD heard this and puts in the patch (how
much clout do BITNET complaints have?).

I then used Supra's HD utilities to MAP out bad sectors (using their
driver because the ICD performs verification: the MAPper does not register a
bad sector... it never gets there).  The MAP function found several bad
clusters and I assume marked them bad.  I have since switched to Supra's
driver again and am in the process of recopying the data back to the HD
from floppy (I used a destructive MAP).  The data, by the way, which was
created from the HD by Turtle was not all intact.  All of it was there
but much of it was broken... assorted cherry bombs adorn my screen when
I run them.  They worked before Turtle wrote them to floppy.  Am I just
having a bad day/week or should I just sell my ST and get an IBM?  I'm
just kidding of course... I meant a Macintosh...  But then again, maybe
I should ignore silicon for a couple of decades (until the idiots who
make computer equipment do it right) and get a pencil, some paper, a
spreadsheet (I wonder if anyone makes the paper ones anymore) and a
slide rule (Does anybody know how long their batteries last?).

Back to FATSPEED... I am suspicious of this program because, well, it is
a convenient scapegoat and soon after I started using it I ran into (or
merely noticed) problems.

If anybody is amused at my situation, shame on you, I'm dying here...

If anybody is interested in saying, "hey stupid, did you set bit 7 at
location $4E2 before you installed the driver?... no?  who let this guy
touch a computer anyway...?" I'll be glad to eat humble pie.  If you are
right that is ;~}

Oh, and by the way, I have not, and never would harm a single hair on a
squirel's head.  Besides, I have not had the chance; here in Illinois
they are still in hiding... maybe I should move to another state where
there are more targets.. err... squirels.

thanks for enduring my (wow!) >100 lines of rambling...      ...John