Message-ID: <1500027@iuvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Nov-84 22:49:00 EST
Article-I.D.: iuvax.1500027
Posted: Thu Nov 29 22:49:00 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Dec-84 02:47:13 EST
Lines: 27
Nf-ID: #N:iuvax:1500027:000:1312
Nf-From: iuvax!lwm    Nov 29 22:49:00 1984


I wonder if anyone out there has heard of or encountered this problem.
The system is an IBM portable PC with the hard disk expansion unit.  It
is being used to run mostly dbase2 applications under DOS 2.1.  Not only
does it seem SLOW, but data on the hard disk appears to be getting
randomly corrupted.  Garbage has appeared in source files and dbase
records get corrupted or lost completely.

One person has told me that the PC portable with the hard disk expansion
unit is inherently slow and unreliable.  He says that accessing the
external hard disk is only about 15% as fast as an internal hard disk
and that the expansion unit slows down all I/O.  He also claims that
the expansion interface is incompatible and unreliable when used with
the portable, but is just fine when used with the regular PC.  This
sounds very strange to me, but it would explain the problem.  Can
anyone shed light on this?  I find it hard to believe the hardware
could be so buggy.  The software maybe, but the hardware?  I would
expect the operating system to report disk errors if the hardware were
at fault.  Can anyone help?

			 	Larry Meehan
			 	uucp:	...ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!lwm
				csnet:	lwm@Indiana
			 	ARPA:	lwm.Indiana@CSnet-Relay
				usnail:	Indiana University C. S. Dept.
					Lindley 101
					Bloomington, IN 47405