Wait! You just described us BOTH!
Joe
----- Original Message -----
From: "Howard Sanner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: [UM-LINUX] dumb disk error question
Quoting Howard Sanner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
However, the other fly in the ointment is that the floppy drive stopped
working. This was a couple days after it had last been used to make an
MS-DOS boot floppy. I swapped in another drive, which worked long
enough to boot DOS twice. Then it stopped, too. So I don't know if it's
a cable or the disk controller (which is on the motherboard). I'm also
not really sure how to test it.
Given the flaky (to be charitable) floppy, I wonder if the problem is
the drive or the drive controller.
OK, the latest, delayed by a horrific couple of weeks at the office,
is that the floppy ribbon cable had become unplugged from the
motherboard. Duh.
Now the floppy spins, which is a step in the right direction. However,
it cannot read or format diskettes. I tried under DOS and Linux. Under
DOS I get an Int 0x24 error; trying to format a disk generates the
message that track 0 is bad. Under Linux mount never returns and gives
back the system prompt.
So something is still very wrong. Is there someplace in the Md.
suburbs I can get a floppy ribbon cable? Does Radio Shack have that
sort of thing? Or maybe Mark Electronics?
All suggestions gratefully received. It's times like this that I wish
I had gotten "into" hardware.
Thanks.
BTW, if any of you are interested in associating a face with my
moronic posts, I'll be recording Haydn's Nelson Mass at St. Andrew's
Episcopal (the one behind the Md. Book Exchange) Sunday afternoon at 4
p.m. It's a concert open to all. Free, but I've never been to a church
concert yet where an offering wasn't taken, and I don't expect this
one to be the first. Full disclosure: I'm not a member of the church,
and I do the recordings pro bono; so I have no interest in their
continued success. I'm the gray haired, overweight guy with a full
beard and wire-rimmed glasses.
Howard Sanner
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
