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Date:	Sat, 5 Jan 2002 00:12:48 PST7
From:	"Benedict G. Archer" <bgarcher@gte.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: command prompt

Content Type: text/plain

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I've had two to five systems running OS/2 for the last five+ years, and
have from time to time experienced what seemed to be a floppy drive
failure. A: drive on one system would find every disk presented to it
unformattable while another system would format the diskette without
complaining. I never followed through to find out what was wrong, but
the bad behavior always went away--except once when a floppy drive
became completely non-functional and a new drive restored normal
behavior. I have one system with two 3.5 in floppy drives because a
drive just wouldn't format or allow a file copy even though yielding an
almost normal response to a DIR command. Convinced the drive had
failed, I got a new one at Fry's, but found that the flapper door was
jammed after I installed it. Took it out and exchanged it for another
one, installed the second new drive and found that it behaved just like
the old one. Then I changed something in the BIOS--don't recall
what--that made the new drive work. Installed the old one and it worked
too. Since OS/2 insists on putting a B: drive in the drives object
whether there really is one or not, I put both in the system. I even
use the B: drive now and then, not because I really need it, but because
it's there.

But returning to the issue that sparked this thread, my experiences
suggest that intermittent floppy drive malfunction does happen and can
self-cure (dirty?), floppy drives do fail (requiring replacement), but
most failures to read or format floppies are due to damaged diskettes.
In Denny's first post he described a changed command line prompt. What
could that indicate?

Dave Watson wrote:
>
> I think Ben's got it. Try another disk, you'll probably see the same
> result. Sounds like a failed drive. Fry's had them for $10 last
> week. I've only had a few fail but I always keep a spare around for
> troubleshooting/replacement.
>
> On 4 Jan 02, at 18:41, Benedict G. Archer wrote:
> > Denny,
> > The diskette was probably damaged before you attempted to format it.
> > An apparently normal directory listing doesn't assure that the disk is
> > OK. The format started and made the directory list unreadable, but
> > aborted when it found track 0 unformattable. Did you try another
> > diskette?
>
> > Zdenek JIzba wrote:
> > >
> > > It occurred to me that I did not give enough information on my problem.
> > > Here is more detail on an experiment I did just a few minutes ago.
> > > 1. I inserted an extra copy of my eCS utility diskettes into the
> > > floppy disk drive.
> > > 2. At the eCS prompt I entered dir a:
> > > The result was a long list of the contents of the 1.44 HD drive
> > > 3. I entered the command: Format a:
> > > This produced the two messages:
> > > SYS1281 Track 0 could not be formatted
> > > SYS1279 The format was unsuccessful
> > > 4. I re-entered the command: dir a: the message reads:
> > > The drive cannot find the sector (area requested)
>

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