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Re: System 6.0.1 won't copy 3.5" disks
In article <CA9tvL.I3z@wave.scar.utoronto.ca> 90taobri@wave.scar.utoronto.ca (Brian Tao) writes:
> In article <2C463BD1.5950@ics.uci.edu>, Jimmy Shaw writes...
> >
> > After installing 6.0.1, I can't copy 3.5" (or 800K devices, such as
> > an 800K ram disk) from one to the other. All attempts have failed
> > with a message similar to "The disk 'Blank' was ejected during its
> > operation. This operation cannot be complete."
>
> Do you have a ZipGS? I recall this was a problem which David Empson
> tracked down to having Slot 6 (yes, 6) set on Fast rather than Normal.
> This was over a year ago, so my memory might be a little fuzzy on the
> details. David?
Yes, that's right. My theory was that the disk firmware was using a
software loop to do long seek operations, and mis-timed it in certain
cases (I think the problem only came up in the GS/OS AppleDisk3.5
driver, not with the card firmware).
In my case, the symptom was that the disk drive went into an infinite
loop seeking back and forth between two tracks. I had to reboot the
computer to do anything else.
What was really weird was that it only happened when I accessed a
particular file from certain programs. It turned out that any program
which asked to read the entire file in a single GS/OS call caused the
problem. The file was fragmented, with part of it near the start of the
disk and the other part near the end. Reading one block at a time was
OK.
The reason for it being slot 6 rather than slot 5 is that the IWM
(disk controller chip) resides in the slot 6 I/O locations, even
though the 3.5" firmware appears in slot 5. (If you have slot 6 set
to "your card", then the SmartPort firmware temporarily sets slot 6 to
"Internal" while doing disk I/O. Interrupts are locked out anyway, so
this shouldn't cause a problem.)
--
David Empson
dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand