Tandy Professional Forum   Section: The Soapbox
Subject: Hard Disk failure   Total messages: 14
===============================================

#62369   1 Reply   08/19/96   22:35:05
From: DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006
To:   john osgood, 73707,3166

  John:
     You seem to be knowledgeable about "hard drives" and tandy

     Let me tell you what kind of fool I am.

     I have a Tandy rsx with a 386sxe chip. ( I am told that is
s is just a 386 sx chip that is sautered in place ) With 80 meg
hard drive. I have installed two 4 meg sims to increase my ram.

     Deciding that I needed more space on my hard drive I bought
a western digital hard drive and installed it myself.
     But when I boot up, the computer will not even recognize
that it is there, so I can not run the set up disk that came with
the hard drive.
     At the same time, I also installed a modem ( no problems )
     Since I did all of this at once, I have no idea if it is
just the hard drive of if I did something else also.
     But when I boot up, the light comes on in the 1.2 G hard
drive, but the computer refuses to even acknowledge that it is
there..
     I have since been told that My system will only handle 350
meg hard drive. But that it should access the larger hard drive
but only let me use 350 meg of it.

     Any ideas?  ( hopefully constructive )


DAn / ARK


#62384   Reply to #62369   3 Replies   08/25/96   22:25:00
From: CESAR OCASIO, 74147,1553
To:   DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006

Let me butt in.

The BIOS on the motherboard you have would not recognize more
than 528MB hard drive, do know  why is recognizing less in your
system.

You need to load a Overlay driver which will let your bios read
hard drive above 528MB.

This overlay is produce by Ontrack, and is call Disk Manager.

Normally is pre-loaded with your new hard drive, so you have to
boot with a floppy, access the hard drive , and save the info in
a blank bootable disk.

If you allready fdisk and formated the hard drive, these files
are gone, you may have to contact the supplier where you got the
hard drive from, for a disk, it suppose to be free.

I hope this help.
Cesar


#62385   Reply to #62384   3 Replies   08/26/96   08:42:24
From: Robert A. Hengstebeck, 76417,2751
To:   CESAR OCASIO, 74147,1553

Cesar, another option for Dan, is for him to look up the drivers
here, or to go to the drive manufacturer's BBS's and to download
the files from there. I've had cases where for one reason or
another, I was not able to find the files on the new hard drives,
even after following the manufactures procedures to the letter.
So these trips to the BBS's are a life saver.  If Dan wants to he
could use "go pcff" on compuserver and follow the options there,
usually giving for the keywords, hard drive, and the
manufacturers name.


#62387   Reply to #62385   08/26/96   19:31:00
From: CESAR OCASIO, 74147,1553
To:   Robert A. Hengstebeck, 76417,2751

Robert:

<<Cesar, another option for Dan, is for him to look up the
drivers here...>>

You are absolutely correct, I forget about that.  As a matter of
fact, that is one of the reason I keep my CIS membership, besides
WOW.

Compuserve is a hardware and software issues treasure chest, you
basically can find anything, no even the internet can matched
yet.

Thank you for remind me and I hope Dan read this too.

Cesar


#62393   Reply to #62385   08/27/96   22:17:07
From: DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006
To:   Robert A. Hengstebeck, 76417,2751

     I want to thank you for your responce to my plea for help.
However, I haven't had time to more than glance at the postings,
so I don't understand everything you said  YET  but when I get
time to actualy think about what you have said, I will get back
to you and let you know how it comes out.

DAn / ARK


#62394   Reply to #62384   08/27/96   22:17:17
From: DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006
To:   CESAR OCASIO, 74147,1553

I want to thank you for your responce to my plea for help.
However, I haven't had time to more than glance at the postings,
so I don't understand everything you said  YET  but when I get
time to actualy think about what you have said, I will get back
to you and let you know how it comes out.

DAn / ARK


#62405   Reply to #62384   1 Reply   08/31/96   16:27:17
From: DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006
To:   CESAR OCASIO, 74147,1553

You need to load a Overlay driver which will let your bios read
hard drive above 528MB.

This overlay is produce by Ontrack, and is call Disk Manager.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------

     Ah hah !

     There was a "disk manager" that came with the hard drive
called "on track". 6.03
But as the instructions with the hard drive were so inadiquite, I
believed that I was suposed to access the hard drive before I
loaded it.

     do you think this is the same as  the" Overlay driver" ?

>>If you allready fdisk and formated the hard drive, these files
are gone<<

     one good thing about not being able to access teh hard
drive, they couldn't "fdisk" it. so the information should still
be there.

     But if the overlay driver is something still different, I
will have to find it somewhare
But the lable does say  " disk manager" and it is by "ontrack"

     So the next step is - Do I just load it to dos or what?

     I can't help it if I am chicken, and refuse to take a step
unless I know what I am doing or at least hope I do. ( gr )

>"Let me butt in."<
     It ain't butting in when you are responding to a request
for help.   Thanks. But don't go away! ( please? )

DAn / ARK


#62406   Reply to #62385   08/31/96   16:28:01
From: DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006
To:   Robert A. Hengstebeck, 76417,2751

>>, another option for Dan, is for him to look up the drivers
here, or to go to the drive manufacturer's BBS's and to download
the files from there.<<<

     I haven't been able to find a bb for western digital. ( it
n it ) I was all set to bug them to death.

DAn / ARK


#62410   Reply to #62405   3 Replies   09/01/96   15:55:20
From: CESAR OCASIO, 74147,1553
To:   DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006

Dan:

If you have the Overlay Driver diskette then all you need to do
is make sure that the hard drive is enable in the CMOS.

This is the computer setup.  If you don't know how to access this
setup, check your computer manual, since there is differents ways
to do it, I don't want to list them here.

Once you are in the screen were you add the hard drive C: and D:
parameters, such as Cylinders, Heads, and Sectors;  just select
hard drive type #32.

Must rom bios have a pre-selected list of hard drives parameters,
number 32 will fall half way.

Exit your CMOS and make sure you save the setup.  Have a DOS boot
diskette in the first drive, either A: or B:.

Let the system boot all the way.   If you have DOS 6.x, you can
press the F5 function key when the "Starting MSDOS"  message
appear, some systems give you 2 seconds.

This will bypass the Autoexec and Config files in the boot
diskette and put you either in the A: or B: prompt.

Once there, remove the boot diskette and insert the Ontrack disk,
type DM and press enter, the Disk Manager will find your hard
drive, fast format, insert the overlay in the boot sector.

It may ask you for the dos diskettes too.

If you can not bypass with the F5 key, then just let it go to the
end, and exit.  Do not install DOS yet.

Then follow the same instructions as explained above for the Disk
Manager.

Godd Luck, and if you have any questions, please let me help
you.

Cesar



#62412   Reply to #62410   09/01/96   21:10:30
From: DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006
To:   CESAR OCASIO, 74147,1553

receaved message- intend to study it well before I make a move
:-)

I do know how to access set up - acutaly it is throwing me there
automaticly becouse I am getting amemory miscompare and a bio mis
compare.

DAn


#62415   Reply to #62410   09/02/96   00:34:15
From: DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006
To:   CESAR OCASIO, 74147,1553

disk manager tells me taht I either have a bad connection, ot
wrong switch settings.

I think I / we are on the right track. I'll take it apart
tomorrow.

well, I hope that you ever get this message- after trying to run
disk manager I haven't been able to get back into compuserve to
do anything.

If you see this - I got it working ( gr )

DAn / ARk


#62416   Reply to #62410   2 Replies   09/02/96   00:55:03
From: DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006
To:   CESAR OCASIO, 74147,1553

     In case you haven't figured it out by now - I have many
problems

     So far I haven't had any luck with the local store in
correcting the following.
( of course, they didn't know how to get the hard drive operating
either )

when I boot up. I get the following messages

write / read failer at 5e585c     Read a212 - expecting a1a1
Invalid con fig information   ( the only con fig changes have
been made by the computer whiz at the store )

also failure at 50d88a  read af8f expecting afaf

write / read fail er at 5e585c read a121 expect a1a1

I am not knowledgable enough to know what this means or what to
do to correct it
can you help me in this aria?
to make things worse, I can't find my manual on the 2500 rsx (
not that I would know where to look )  But I will find it.

DAn / ARK


#62421   Reply to #62416   09/03/96   00:38:23
From: CESAR OCASIO, 74147,1553
To:   DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006

Dan:

<<write / read failer at 5e585c     Read a212 - expecting a1a1>>


Now your computer is talking Guru language.  Those messages can
mean different things.

If you have a Tandy computer and the bios was specially design
for Tandy, you may have a conflict with the overlay.

Don't know if you be able to upgrade the rom bios on the
motherboard, since Tandy computers  in my understanding are
unique in design.

If you can read the directory see if the bios now read pass the
528mb Dos limit.

If not, you may have to redo the process.

If you have a second hard drive, and the new one is the slave,
make sure the overlay is loaded on the boot sector of the master
one, Disk Manager should do that automatically.

But it is risky, some brands of hard drives don't work fine with
others unless they are the master, and sometimes the overlay
corrupt the good hard drive.  That is why they recommend a backup
in that case.

I wish I could take a look at your system, but I live in
Richmond, Virginia.  Some times those errors are caused  also by
the controller card too.  Some controller cards have a bios rom
that may conflict with the overlay.

Ontrack Technologies pack a special edition of Disk Manager for
each hard drive brand.  But they have a Disk Manager that covers
all the hard drives.

Newest motherboards bios now include a LBA (Logical Block
Allocation) which deals with hard drives higher than 528MB, so
those don't need the overlay.

If you continue having trouble, check if it will be cost
effective to upgrade the bios rom in your motherboard, or get a
new motherboard, or get a complete version of Disk Manager, or
have a technician check your computer.  Make sure that the
controller card for the hard drive is check too.

I hope you be able to get your system to work properly.   Please,
let me know the outcome.

Cesar



#62430   Reply to #62416   09/04/96   02:52:26
From: Horace Ory, 71625,1006
To:   DAN WILHITE, 102716,3006

The read/write errors have to do with reading incorrect
information stored in memory, perhaps by an earlier write
operation.  It could be a memory chip problem, but could also be
from other things, such as a power supply problem, other source
of noise, etc.


