Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!mailrus!ulowell!cbmvax!jesup
From: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: A1020 (5.25 inch drive) Problems
Message-ID: <5418@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 3 Dec 88 01:56:42 GMT
References: <506@aecom2.AECOM.YU.EDU> <3043@sugar.uu.net>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 51

In article <3043@sugar.uu.net> ssd@sugar.uu.net (Scott Denham) writes:
>In article <506@aecom2.AECOM.YU.EDU>, rosentha@aecom2.AECOM.YU.EDU (Yitzchak Rosenthal) writes:
>> 	I have an A2000 with 1 internal floppy a 2090 and a segate ST251N
>> I think the problem is related to the fact that there is only 1 internal
>> floppy  and the PCUtil programs see the 1020 as DF2: but I am not sure.
>> the PCUtil programs produce the following results: 
>> 	1) in PCCopy no files show up 
>> 	2) in PCFormat it starts up and I get an error (-4)
>> 	   right away.
>> 
>I have a similar configuration - A2000, one internal floppy, but no HD.
>I DON'T have an A1020 - I have a homebrew 5 1/4 using a Tandon TM-100-2
>that I built when I had a 1000.  It worked fine on the 1000, and still
>does. It also works fine as a standard file system (I.E. mounted) device.
>But I get exactly the same symptoms from the PCUtil programs. 

	You people have hit a bug in trackdisk that was discovered recently.
Trackdisks' test of whether a RAWREAD/RAWWRITE command is valid is broken,
and is dependant on what's in a random section of memory.  The memory happens
to be set to ok values IF you have 2 floppies (almost all the time).  On
a 1-floppy system it's usually bad, and causes a rejection of the RAW
READ/WRITE command.
>> I am considering two possible solutions.
>> 	1) buying another internal drive (if the missing df1:
>> 	   is for some strange reason causing the problem and
>> 	   putting one in will fix it).

	That will, in fact, probably fix it.

>> 	2) buying Dos2Dos or its equivalent (if its commodore's PCUtil
>> 	   software thats buggy and I have some proof that  Dos2Dos it
>> 	   will work)

	Make SURE you verify Dos2Dos works on your config.  They may go
directly to the hardware, in which case they're ok.

>Further,
>a fellow here in Houston has written a program to dump raw IBM tracks
>using the RAWREAD/RAWWRITE (actually, it's an unfinished sector editor)
>and it fails, on both my drives, with the same -4 error. So that's 3
>different pieces of software that have the same problem. I considered 
>DOS-2-DOS but figured chances are they use the same trackdisk function 
>and therefore would probably get the same error. 

	See above.  They may use the hardware directly, you could
call and ask.

	This bug will be fixed in 1.4 (it's in the ROM).
-- 
You've heard of CATS? Well, I'm a member of DOGS: Developers Of Great Software.
Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup