Re: Problems with disk images to disk

[labelas@hotmail.com (Labelas Enoreth)]

>      A fairly common reason for a .dsk ---> diskette conversion to fail
> is that the target diskette is not formatted or has some weird format.
> In most cases, you will get good results if the target diskette is newly
> formatted for DOS 3.3. You can do this via Copy II+ or via an INIT under
> DOS 3.3.
> 
Well, done that. I make sure to format the disk beforehand, but I used
ShrinkIt because it was what I had onhand. If I don't format the disk,
writing the image back to disk takes ten times as long, makes horrible
noise, and still doesn't work.
>      The usual setting for conversions is "DOS Order". If you know the
> .dsk file is a ProDOS image, use the "ProDOS Order" setting.
>
Yep. Made sure that the images that I was writing back to disk were DOS
3.3 order. 
>      A good .dsk file almost always has an 'actual file size' of 143360
> bytes. (The on-disk size may be much smaller.)  If you are getting
> downloads of .dsk files which end up larger than 143,360 bytes,
> something is probably wrong in the downloads or in the transfers to your
> Apple II card. (BTW, .dsk.gz files are _compressed_ disk image files.
> They need to be uncompressed using WinZip or some similar utility to
> obtain .dsk files.)
Nope, they're all the right size and everything. I download them to my
mac, decompress them and check them, then copy them over to the ProDOS
partition.

Here's what I have gotten when trying to write disk images back to disk,
with various different disks, images, and conditions.

Most common: nothing. The computer doesn't recognize the disk in any way,
and it doesn't boot either. If you try to access the disk with anything,
all you get is the 'RrrrrRRRRRrr' and then it just skips over it.

Occasionally: The disk drive accesses for a second, then the IIe beeps and
freezes. If I'm real lucky, it will break into the monitor. One time I
tried IN#6, which may or may not have been a good idea, and was treated to
'RrrrrRRRRRRrrr<beep!>RrrrrRRRRRRrrr<beep!>RrrrrRRRRRRrrr<beep!>RrrrrRRRRRRrrr<beep!>'
infinitely until I reset.

Once in a while: one or two disk images/disks have given me a flashing
yellow screen that makes a 'fooping' noise everytime it flashes, with 'Not
a Bootable disk!!' or something like that, in the middle of the screen.

One wonders if it is possible for the disk controller on the IIe card to
be messed up. Or maybe it's just me.