Re: AAUGH! Vulcan 20 dying??

[david@uow.edu.au (David Wilson)]

dalloff@gcfn.org (Dave Althoff Jr) writes:
>Somehow, at a random interval, certain bytes have been advanced by five
>ASCII codes.  For example, where I would expect to read:

Actually only 4 not 5.

>This is the build-up to the ride's longest drop, I think it is on the
>order of 170' into a dark tunnel. 

>I get instead:

>Phms$iw the fumld-up$to the vide's$longewt$dvop, I tlink it ms$on the 
>ordev of 170' mnto a daro tunnel. 

T xor P = 0000 0100
h xor h = 0000 0000
i xor m = 0000 0100
s xor s = 0000 0000
  xor $ = 0000 0100
i xor i = 0000 0000
s xor w = 0000 0100

I detect a pattern :-)

>And why did a "T" turn into a "P" instead of a "Y"?  So far, that's the
>only one where the error counted backwards.  And the error seems to be
>popping up at a random interval!

>So does this mean my drive is dying?  Or should I try pulling off anything
>that isn't corrupted, reformatting the drive, and trying again?

Something is certainly dying.

>If the drive is dying, does anybody have any advice as to what kind of
>drive I should look for to use with the Vulcan card?  The present drive is
>a Western Digital WD-93028-AD, and I notice it is dated 06-01-1990.  I
>guess 11 years in two computers under two owners is a full and happy life
>for a disk drive.....

My first hard disk drive was a Seagate ST251N SCSI drive on my Apple //e.
It died after 90 days and had a 90 day warranty... It eventually got replaced
and probably still works. My latest drive to die was an IBM laptop drive
that died after 18 months (fortunately with a 24 month warranty).
--
David Wilson  School of IT & CS, Uni of Wollongong, Australia