Re: SCSI Hard drive problems . . .

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Byron Desnoyers Winmill writes ...
> 
> One of the (several) problems which I have with my IIgs configuration is a
> finicky SCSI hard drive.  The problem is that I do not know if it is because
> of the controller, or hard drive, or of even deeper problems.
> 
> The issue is this, when the hard drive and computer are first started it
> will always start booting GS/OS, get to a particular point, then dump me into
> the monitor.  It does not matter how long I give the drive to spin up, nor
> anything else that I can think of.  (This is the only device on the chain,
> and there is a terminator on the end, but I would assume that this would
> be a problem in detecting the drive, not loading software from it.)
> 
> At that point, I turn both the machine and hard drive off, turn the drive
> back on, give it time to spin up, then power on the computer.  All works
> fine.  If the drive is not turned off then on, it will do the same thing.
> 
> Has anybody else experienced this?  Or is it time to go hard drive shopping?
 ....

     If the problem is with sticky seek mechanisms, you _may_ be able to get
around it (for a while) by starting everything as usual except booting ProDOS
from diskette. Let the ProDOS Startup program give the HD a workout-- e.g.
attempt BLOADs of parts of several files spread around on the HD. ONERR's in the
program would prevent interruption of the workout until the reads are
successful.

    Then, when all the partial BLOAD (Text file accesses, etc.) attempts are
succeeding, the program executes a PR#7 (or PR-whatever Slot your HD controller
is in) to boot the HD.



Rubywand