Re: Focus drive fixed

[Stephen Shaw <xstephenx@apple2.org.za>]

Mark try formatting it under another OS. I have resurrected a number of
Mac/Microsoft formatted drives under GS/OS or ProDOS.

On Thu, 19 Jul 2001 00:41:01 +1000, Mark Cummings wrote:

> A while back there were a few people having problems with their Focus HDDs,
> including myself. I had problems booting mine, but booting a system floppy
> would mount all the vols. Then running a Check Drive said it was OK !.
> Eventually I decided to low-level format it using the Focus Format Utility.
> If I ran the Verify Drive option I kept getting different block errors
> which was confusing, but I had read advise that this utility was not the
> best method so I assumed I should ignore those and use ProSel instead (if I
> could ever get that far). Normally I could load System 6 software onto the
> HDD and rebooted it 1 or maybe 2 times, before the HDD would play up again,
> and I was back to low level stuff again.
> I had to make a decision on whether the fault was the HDD itself, or the
> interface. I didn't have any access to another 2.5" mechanism or knew
> anyone near (within 2000miles) that could test my drive for me, so I
> decided to bite the bullet and get a new HDD mechanism. I bought a 750M
> Apple ROM IBM mechanism as it seemed to fit Alltechs recommendations.
>
> Anyway, low-level formatted it, partitioned it and set up System 6 on the
> boot partition, and so far it all seems sweet. Passed every test so far.
> Except I'm still not happy yet with 25 partitions, but I hope to fix that
> soon, after some more testing.
>
> The only conclusion I can come to on the old drive is that the problem was
> in the partition table, and not in the actual partitions. this might
> explain the problem booting it at least.
>
> Others with similar Focus problems (that are out of warranty, or are just
> cheaper to fix yourself) should consider replacing the drive, which is the
> cheapest part of the whole thing. Of course if you have access to another
> IBM/Toshiba 2.5" HDD to experiment with, that's a better option.
>
> Mark

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