Re: *WARNING* to Focus Drive (and possibly Sirius RAM card) owners regarding write corruption!

[warnken@nospam@mother.com]

<<However, if you use the GS/OS Memory Control Panel to specify a disk cache
for the system to use, there appears to be some sort of collision between
this cache and the on-board cache, resulting in corrupted writes (NOT reads) to the Focus Drive, regardless of filesystem type.  In addition, utilizing a GS/OS disk cache when running FocusDriver actually seems to result in a noticable _decrease_ in speed.>>
 
<<It is not clear to me at this time if this problem is only triggered in
conjunction with a Sirius RAM card, or if it affects all Focus Drive users.>>
 
<<My recommendation is to *completely* disable the GS/OS disk cache - my tests have shown that even the 32K GS/OS default cache can very quickly cause write corruption. likely to get better performance from FocusDriver than you are the system as disk cache.>>  snipped some of this paragraph
 
<<To verify corruption, either a) launch AppleWorks, and if you're lucky enough to actually get to the opening screen, go into the Spreadsheet function and try entering some numbers in cells - they'll likely
all register as zero shortly before a program crash,>>
 
It looks to me like you still have a problem.  I use AppleworksGS a great
deal and have no problems with it booting from the Focus hard drive. - either old one or new.  I also have a ROM3 with 8 meg Sirius RAM card.  I'm currently running 3296K RAM disk.  I don't know where to find the cache you mention.  Let me know how to look that up and I'll check it.
  
Also in my talk with Tony he said that people using AppleWorks GS seemed to return more Focus cards.  Something about how AWGS "saves" files is hard on the Focus.  Of course that was what I started noticing that indicated I had a problem with my 500meg card.  I was writing a newsletter for GSAUG at the 11th hour.  I was saving it as I went along. Almost at the end all of a sudden the file disappeared after a save operation.  I had to write the article 3 times before I figured out the open apple-S functio
n was failing.  
 
Of course this is an old machine and I've use it almost daily for several years.  I've never cleaned anything, though I have opened it up on a number of occasions and moved cards.  
                             
Sanday