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From: hcj@lzsc.ATT.COM (HC Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Hard disk problems
Summary: something is failing
Message-ID: <1371@lzsc.ATT.COM>
Date: 8 Mar 90 17:07:28 GMT
References: <1777@loria.crin.fr>
Organization: AT&T BL Middletown/Lincroft NJ USA
Lines: 26

In article <1777@loria.crin.fr>, domen@cartan.crin.fr (Eric Domenjoud) writes:
> Some days ago, my hard disk got completely corrupted: I first noticed
> that some files were mixed on the disk and looking at the FATS and the root
> directory, I saw that a prt of file was written in the root directory and
> some clusters were allocated to more than one file. It's actually the third
> time it happens but I never exactly identified the problem before. I have
> then two questions:

Well, something is failing.
First choice is that the disk read wrong, and did not report the error.
If you have a standard SH204, this is true.  There is a PLA fix from
Berkeley Microsystems (USA) for this.

Second choice on the hard disk is that it read wrong, but the checksum was
OK.  Not all that likely, but just as fatal.

Third choice is an unfortunate memory failure.  This may be detectable with
a memory check program; but the ultimate test of memory is using it.

Least likely is the file selector.  It really cannot direct disk data to
random locations.

Howard C. Johnson
ATT Bell Labs
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