[Techtoolslist] Fluke 9100 hard disk write errors

[Corey Stup]

> I turned on the disk error reporting from the service disk, and when i get 

> the write error now, it shows the address as 00000001 so its the very first 

> write it is failing on each time..

>   

>  Bearing in mind the drive still appears to format ok, and that i had no 

> previous problems with it, do you think this write error is the drive, or 

> the controller, or the software mis reporting it?

>   

Not a good sign.  Bad drive or SCSI->MFM adaptor.   The error reporting 
being turned on is key, the format utility itself ignores most other 
errors except a bad sector 0.  


> any help appreciated, or i'm going to be reduced to manually loading the 

> system software from floppy disks everytime i want to use the damn thing, 

> which will be a real pain as i do use the 9100 almost on a daily basis.

>   

Those Miniscribe drives are lucky they spin up at all anymore.   Most 
likely its the drive.   I have a pile of bad MFM drives from 9100's - 
the Seagates all suffer from stiction, the Miniscribes media starts 
failing (or the platter motor can't maintain accurate speed anymore)...

SInce you've already upgraded to the version 5.0 ROMs, get a used SCSI 
drive off eBay and replace it.  Plugs right into the SCSI controller you 
already have, just remove the SCSI->MFM adaptor mounted on the drive 
cage.  Much simpler design and one fewer point of failure.

Note that if you plan on using the Editor (with a keyboard/monitor) 
you'll need to stick below somewhere around a  400MB drive.   Theres a 
rollover bug where the free-space calculation is not accurate with 
larger disks.  I believe the largest drive I have in any of my 9100's 
from Fluke is 320MB.  I usually try and get one of the 1/2" height 
Quantums (like a LPS series), eBay usually has a selection of cheap 
pulls from old Macs.

I do have a good used Miniscribe or two if anyone needs an "original" 
setup.  No warranty of course, but its not DOA.