From: scottc@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Scott A. Craig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: HD crash / req info 2nd drive
Date: 27 Dec 1992 00:18:30 GMT
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu
Keywords: MFM crash upgrade

The 3B1 is a smarter machine than any of us give it credit for. I've noticed
that my Model 7300 seems to have a hard disk crash whenever 2 things happen.
They are when I have some time off from work to use the computer... and have
information on the hard drive that is very important to me that hasn't been
backed up. Yes, it's happened to me again. I haven't had more than
2 days off in a row since April, and the other night started the beginning of a
11-day rest from work. The other night I walked into the computer
room to notice that the time display at the top of the screen was gone,
but it was still sitting at a shell prompt. I issued a "df" which just sat
there and I was able to break out of. If I gave it more time it MAY have
worked. I issued a "pwd" command that took a minute or two but did work.
I tried to change to my home directory, but it said it did not exist.
I figured this was a temporary problem until I tried to reset and the
loader screen didn't even pop up. I tried booting up a diag disk (the newer
one) that I saved to probably the "better" formatted disk that wouldn't
boot... so I used my stock diagnostics disk. I first tried to park the
heads to see if it could be done... and it came up with:

                   ** ERROR **
Test   : Hard disk test(Drive 0 )
Subtest: Park Disk Heads
Error  : WINCHESTER:Can't Recal:Response = 10
        Enter y [Y] to Abort, Return to continue: 

When I hit return the drive will beep and it will say "Hard Disk parking
Done!".. every time. I get errors on all of the hard disk tests also.

I was hoping I could boot from a floppy and use the floppy file system
to access a couple files from the hard drive. When it comes time to
insert the Floppy File System disk (disk 3 of 12) I get the following:

#HDERR ST:51 EF:10 CL:FF00 CH:FF00 SN:FF00 SC:FF02 SDH:FF20 DMACNT:FFFF DCRREG:F0 MCRREG:8B00
#HDERR ST:51 EF:10 CL:FF00 CH:FF00 SN:FF00 SC:FF02 SDH:FF20 DMACNT:FFFF DCRREG:F0 MCRREG:8B00
#HDERR ST:51 EF:10 CL:FF00 CH:FF00 SN:FF00 SC:FF02 SDH:FF20 DMACNT:FFFF DCRREG:F0 MCRREG:8F00
panic: iinit

I haven't learned that language yet... other than knowing hex numbers..
I don't know what they mean in this manner, except that it's telling
me I have hard drive errors.

If there's an answer in this that may allow me to get some of my data
back could someone let me know?

QUESTION: What's the latest and best (maybe there's more than one? :] )
          way to add another hard drive or two to the 3B1/7300?
          I want to do it.

Also... where's a good place to get MFM drives for our systems?
        Preferably a 40MB or next step up.. just to keep it cheap but useful.

The drive I have that just crashed is a Seagate... not the stock Miniscribe.
I had the Miniscribe die on me about a year ago...a friend gave me the
drive I have in it now. The miniscribe was suspected of failing due to
a static problem that caused a "spiral burn" mark on it.

Scott Craig             Email: scottc@gnu.ai.mit.edu
P.O. Box 160
Port Ewen, NY 12466