Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!columbia!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbcad!ucbvax!S34.UUCP!ELLIOT From: ELLIOT@S34.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.os.cpm Subject: (none) Message-ID: <8707221530.AA05113@primerd.prime.com> Date: Wed, 22-Jul-87 10:01:11 EDT Article-I.D.: primerd.8707221530.AA05113 Posted: Wed Jul 22 10:01:11 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 24-Jul-87 05:01:25 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 34 To: (info-cpm@simtel20.arpa) From: Elliot MednickDate: 22 Jul 87 9:36 AM Subject: Sector crashes on double density driver for Xerox 820 I have a package from Software Publishers Inc. of Arlignton Texas which converts the 8" floppies of my Xerox 820 from single density to one of seven formats of double density. The version I have is dated 15 March 1982. The problem is that occasionally and inconsistantly, sectors are wiped out during a write. Of course, I don't know this until I try to read them (BIOS error...). I believe that the hardware headers are wiped out and that the controller cannot read the sector (DU can't read the bad sectors). This happens even when writing one sector at time during a Kermit as well as during extracting and unsqeezing files. It seems to happen less often when I use a less dense format and never when I revert to signle density. I don't remember this ever working consistently. My question, then, is this: Does anyone know if this can possibly be tied to a bad release of the BIOS or the controller hardware where an update would fix the problem (and if so, does this company still exist; there are no sources for the BIOS - I can't see that software could do this kind of damage)? Or is this a media problem (I've been using Sony SSDD, though they may be old). Or are my drives out of alignment or dirty (I've cleaned the heads; the freqency of error is apparently the same on both of my drives)? Is there anybody out there with this kind of experience? Should I just give up and invest in a hard disk (any ST506 controllers out there for the 820)? Thanks in advance, Elliot Mednick Prime Computer, Inc. 617-879-2960 x3608 elliot@s34.prime.com (arpa) ...mit-eddie!primerd!s34.prime.com!elliot (uucp)