Re: stuck or broken Focus drive

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

John writes ...
> 
> o my Focus drive won't boot
> 
> Over the years I've been able to continue using it by repeatedly
> resetting. Eventually it booted and once it did it would be fine unless
> it sits for a long while. In this instance, however, I can't get it to
> boot (so far).

     You could try pulling your Focus Drive card (with power OFF),
then disconnecting the drive, cleaning the pins, and reconnecting
the drive. Also, clean the card contacts.

     Some drives which may have worn bearings will work a while 
longer if they are reoriented. You could try tilting the IIgs 
45 degrees or more. 

> 
> 1) I can't recall the vendor I purchased the replacement drives from
> last time. It was a reseller of 2nd hand drives, like a 200 meg Conner.
> They were really cheap, $15ish or less, I think the vendor was located
> in CA, they mostly handled old hard drives. Their name reflected the
> selling of 2nd hand hard drives. (it wasn't the guy who sells the focus
> cards). Anyone know who I'm talking about, or have a suggestion for a
> vendor?

     Might be Dirt Cheap Drives ( http://www.dirtcheapdrives.com/ ), 
except they're in Texas. 

     A bunch of those old 1990's surplus places (LA Trade, Dee One, ...)
seem to be gone.  

> 
> 2) Meanwhile I thought I could write a program which would reboot the
> computer. If the Focus drive doesn't boot eventually the 5.25 drive
> will activate. It will continue to spin (the hd seeks stop),  unless
> you reset it. I would like to create an auto running BASIC program
> which would reset the computer like a cold start. This way it can cycle
> unattended until the HD boots. How do I do this?

     If your Focus is in Slot 7 and if the boot eventually tries other
drives (when it can't boot from Slot 7), then, you could let the boot
sequence fall through to Slot 5 and boot the diskette there.

     Your Slot 5 diskette's Startup program could wait a few seconds
and then do a PR#7 to try the Focus again.


Rubywand