Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!UICVM.BITNET!U46050
From: U46050@UICVM.BITNET ("JOHN ZAFIRIS")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: (none)
Message-ID: <8903180429.AA13885@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 18 Mar 89 04:28:18 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 41

Greg Lindahl writes:

>Why don't you try booting without FATSPEED, and see if the hardware
>problem persists? I doubt that it could physically damage the disk.

The problem occurs infrequently but when it does occur it seems to cause
damage to the data (FATs etc...).  There are times when there is no problem
with FATSPEED and others when there are.  Just removing it and waiting a
few weeks would prove that it is or is not concusively but who has the
patience to wait and how do I know something else has not gone wrong?
There is no physical damage but if the drive has to be reformatted it is
just as catastrophic.

>Your problem is probably the RLL controller and the MFM drive, which
>is a no-no, especially with certain Seagate drives which are known to
>choke AFTER WORKING FOR A WHILE.
>

I recently had the same problem on my other system which has a new 30Meg
Supra (with Seagate SCSI drive: STxxxN type).  I promptly removed
FATSPEED and am hoping it was the cause of the problem.  I think it was.

I dont know about "certain Seagate drives" but I know that the ST251 and
the ST277R are the same drive with different stickers on them.  The ST277R
has just tested good as an RLL device.  I got an ST251-1 and ran it as RLL
because that would give me a fast 65Meg, 28msec system.  There is no
ST277R-1 available (at least that I know of).

>-- greg
>
>--
>------
>Greg Lindahl                |      Graduate School:
>gl8f@virginia.{edu,bitnet}  |      It's not just a job,
> ...!uunet!virginia!gl8f    |      It's an indenture.
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  \>>> Grad School... the ultimate loophole in minimum wage laws.