unbootable HD, the solution

unbootable HD, the solution

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

Hi gang,

I promised to let you know the solution to my puzzling problem a
week or so ago about the unbootable hard disk. It turns out the
guy at the computer store knew enough about Linux to look beyond
his initial impressions, and discovered a defective hard disk
after all. He replaced the HD with a new one and we are out of
the woods at last.

Chuck

-- 
The Moon is Waning Crescent (24% of Full)
So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Igor Gueths]

Did he ever specify what the defect was i.e., not enough power to the
disk?

May you code in the power of the source,
may the kernel, libraries, and utilities be with you,
throughout all distributions until the end of the epoch.

On Mon, 27 Jan 2003, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:

> Hi gang,
>
> I promised to let you know the solution to my puzzling problem a
> week or so ago about the unbootable hard disk. It turns out the
> guy at the computer store knew enough about Linux to look beyond
> his initial impressions, and discovered a defective hard disk
> after all. He replaced the HD with a new one and we are out of
> the woods at last.
>
> Chuck
>
> --
> The Moon is Waning Crescent (24% of Full)
> So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

He managed to get an RH distro installed but the HD was erratic
with lots of I/O errors, particularly when reading sector 0. I
had also noticed very poor hard disk performance when I had it
running after booting from a floppy. He did not mention a power
problem, but replacing the disk solved the problem.


On Mon, 27 Jan 2003, Igor Gueths wrote:

> Did he ever specify what the defect was i.e., not enough power to the
> disk?
>
> May you code in the power of the source,
> may the kernel, libraries, and utilities be with you,
> throughout all distributions until the end of the epoch.
>
> On Mon, 27 Jan 2003, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
>
> > Hi gang,
> >
> > I promised to let you know the solution to my puzzling problem a
> > week or so ago about the unbootable hard disk. It turns out the
> > guy at the computer store knew enough about Linux to look beyond
> > his initial impressions, and discovered a defective hard disk
> > after all. He replaced the HD with a new one and we are out of
> > the woods at last.
> >
> > Chuck
> >
> > --
> > The Moon is Waning Crescent (24% of Full)
> > So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

-- 
The Moon is Waning Crescent (24% of Full)
So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Scott Howell]

Oh hell! Now didn't that figure.

On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 01:27:43PM -0500, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
> Hi gang,
> 
> I promised to let you know the solution to my puzzling problem a
> week or so ago about the unbootable hard disk. It turns out the
> guy at the computer store knew enough about Linux to look beyond
> his initial impressions, and discovered a defective hard disk
> after all. He replaced the HD with a new one and we are out of
> the woods at last.
> 
> Chuck
> 
> -- 
> The Moon is Waning Crescent (24% of Full)
> So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Janina Sajka]

Many years ago the very same thing happened to me. It was on my work
system which had just been donated to my employer, World Institute on
Disability, by HP. This was in the early 1990s, and this was a smoking
machine for that time. In fact, it was my first hd that exceeded 1gB.
The cpu was a 486/33.

On that machine, the problem was intermittant. Sometimes everything
worked fine. Then, out of the blue, files were reported missing.

Of course, it was my fault. It was the speech. It was the screen reader.
It was the OS. It was the everything except what it was--a bad hd.
Finally, I got someone to replace the hd and never had a problem with
that system again.

Charles Hallenbeck writes:
> From: Chuck Hallenbeck <chuckh@mhonline.net>
> 
> Hi gang,
> 
> I promised to let you know the solution to my puzzling problem a
> week or so ago about the unbootable hard disk. It turns out the
> guy at the computer store knew enough about Linux to look beyond
> his initial impressions, and discovered a defective hard disk
> after all. He replaced the HD with a new one and we are out of
> the woods at last.
> 
> Chuck
> 
> -- 
> The Moon is Waning Crescent (24% of Full)
> So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Shaun Oliver]

*SNIP*
Of course, it was my fault. It was the speech. It was the screen reader.
It was the OS. It was the everything except what it was--a bad hd.
*SNIP*
How many times have I heard people say linsux linfucked and various other 
varients.
I tell you, it shits me. people critisize things they don't understand. 
and why's this? it's because they refuse to open they're minds to 
something different. something that is possibly one of the best operating 
systems around.
let's face it, I ain't had as much access to the installation of an os as 
I have to Gnu/Linux.
currently just for something different, I'm running red hat 8.0. I haven't 
had any problems with it apart frm a couple of bad hdds.
and those were due to one falling out of the drive caddy, and the other 
surcoming to a lose cmos batery.
but shit happens.
let's get out there and teach these poor unfortunates that when something 
goes wrong hardware wise, it ain't the fault of the os, or the screen 
reader, or the anything other than the hardware that fucked up in the 
first place.
I have a tendancy to get them back and blame windows for their constant 
bitching, complaining and various other ills for runningthat dreaded os.
that's my $0.02 worth.


-- 
Shaun Oliver


"We're upgrading /dev/null"


EMAIIL: shaun_oliver@optusnet.com.au
ICQ: 76958435
MSN: blindman_2001@hotmail.com
YAHOO: blindman01_2000

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Scott Howell]

Ah, this reminds me of a very interesting problem I ran into.
Mind you this is from the days when most chips were socketed and 
actually cost some money. Yes, this was an old 386-SX 25 I was running 
my bbs and Fidonet mail service on.
I bet some of you remember Fidonet, BinkleyTerm, node lists, RBBS, 
Maximus, Opus, and so on. Hell does anyone remember bonk and the node 
list mungers?
In any case this old 386 was crankin' for its time, but it had one 
incredibly odd problem. You could put a floppy in, read, copy from it, 
and all that no problem. If you attempted to write to it the trouble 
would start. Files on the disk would disappear or the disk would just 
turn out trashed. Months went by with every possible diagnostic trick 
done and never did find the problem. I ended up deciding it was the DMA 
chip on the board, but never got a chance to replace it. Ended up 
tossing the board or giving it away I can't remember, but upgraded to a 
screamming 386-DX 33.
And to think I ran that bbs on an AST 286 with 130Mb hd and that was 
considered one of the largest bbs systems in the area. Oh yes screamming 
along at 9600 baud.<grin>
I've not heard a story yet that has surprised me about hardware 
failures. I can remember when failures were common whereas now they are 
rear.

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Adam Myrow]

I had a similar problem with my floppy drive on my computer which I
currently own.  It could read just fine, but any attempt to write to disks
was disastrous.  It couldn't format disks at all.  I replaced the floppy
drive and no more trouble.  I sort of suspect the original floppy drive
was defective from the factory, but it took me awhile to finally replace
it.  Did you ever try replacing the drive on that old computer?  I don't
know how much floppy drives cost back in those days, but you can get them
for a song now.

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Scott Howell]

Ah, yes at that time drives were pretty expensive at least by today's 
standards. I think they went for about $40 or $50, but don't quote me it 
has been a while. I actually did swap it out with a friend so that 
wasn't it. I've never seen that problem appear sense I must admitt, but 
there was the time a floppy was giving my buddy's box a tough time and I 
just ripped the cover off it and it ran for years.<grin> Was one of 
those things again where it just didn't make sense, but hell it worked 
just fine.


On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 06:21:04PM -0600, Adam Myrow wrote:
> I had a similar problem with my floppy drive on my computer which I
> currently own.  It could read just fine, but any attempt to write to disks
> was disastrous.  It couldn't format disks at all.  I replaced the floppy
> drive and no more trouble.  I sort of suspect the original floppy drive
> was defective from the factory, but it took me awhile to finally replace

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[monte single]

You wrote;
"failures were
common whereas now
they are
rear."
I think we know what you meant.

Scott Howell wrote:

> Ah, this reminds me of a very interesting problem I ran into.
> Mind you this is from the days when most chips were socketed and
> actually cost some money. Yes, this was an old 386-SX 25 I was running
> my bbs and Fidonet mail service on.
> I bet some of you remember Fidonet, BinkleyTerm, node lists, RBBS,
> Maximus, Opus, and so on. Hell does anyone remember bonk and the node
> list mungers?
> In any case this old 386 was crankin' for its time, but it had one
> incredibly odd problem. You could put a floppy in, read, copy from it,
> and all that no problem. If you attempted to write to it the trouble
> would start. Files on the disk would disappear or the disk would just
> turn out trashed. Months went by with every possible diagnostic trick
> done and never did find the problem. I ended up deciding it was the DMA
> chip on the board, but never got a chance to replace it. Ended up
> tossing the board or giving it away I can't remember, but upgraded to a
> screamming 386-DX 33.
> And to think I ran that bbs on an AST 286 with 130Mb hd and that was
> considered one of the largest bbs systems in the area. Oh yes screamming
> along at 9600 baud.<grin>
> I've not heard a story yet that has surprised me about hardware
> failures. I can remember when failures were common whereas now they are
> rear.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Scott Howell]

Ah, sorry I had my mind elsewhere apparently....in the rear...well a 
topic for another time and list.<grin>


On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 06:33:50PM -0600, monte single wrote:
> You wrote;
> "failures were
> common whereas now
> they are
> rear."
> I think we know what you meant.

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Alex Snow]

I have a box here that sometimes the floppy  drive fails on bootup.  Tried
replacing the damn floppy drive (had to rip half the case apart() but
still gives me trouble.  starting to think it's the floppy controler.

--
A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up yours!"
On Wed, 29 Jan 2003, Scott Howell wrote:

> Ah, sorry I had my mind elsewhere apparently....in the rear...well a
> topic for another time and list.<grin>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 06:33:50PM -0600, monte single wrote:
> > You wrote;
> > "failures were
> > common whereas now
> > they are
> > rear."
> > I think we know what you meant.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Alex Snow]

Of course I remember most of those pkgs... I've been running a bbs for
over a year now.

--
A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up yours!"
On Tue, 28 Jan 2003, Scott Howell wrote:

> Ah, this reminds me of a very interesting problem I ran into.
> Mind you this is from the days when most chips were socketed and
> actually cost some money. Yes, this was an old 386-SX 25 I was running
> my bbs and Fidonet mail service on.
> I bet some of you remember Fidonet, BinkleyTerm, node lists, RBBS,
> Maximus, Opus, and so on. Hell does anyone remember bonk and the node
> list mungers?
> In any case this old 386 was crankin' for its time, but it had one
> incredibly odd problem. You could put a floppy in, read, copy from it,
> and all that no problem. If you attempted to write to it the trouble
> would start. Files on the disk would disappear or the disk would just
> turn out trashed. Months went by with every possible diagnostic trick
> done and never did find the problem. I ended up deciding it was the DMA
> chip on the board, but never got a chance to replace it. Ended up
> tossing the board or giving it away I can't remember, but upgraded to a
> screamming 386-DX 33.
> And to think I ran that bbs on an AST 286 with 130Mb hd and that was
> considered one of the largest bbs systems in the area. Oh yes screamming
> along at 9600 baud.<grin>
> I've not heard a story yet that has surprised me about hardware
> failures. I can remember when failures were common whereas now they are
> rear.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Charles Crawford]

Heh.  I used to be the sysop for the MCB BBS fpr almost 9 years.  PCBOARD 
with up to ten users.  Those were the days.  I miss them.

-- charlie Crawford.
At 06:29 AM 1/29/03 -0500, you wrote:
>Of course I remember most of those pkgs... I've been running a bbs for
>over a year now.
>
>--
>A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up 
>yours!"
>On Tue, 28 Jan 2003, Scott Howell wrote:
>
> > Ah, this reminds me of a very interesting problem I ran into.
> > Mind you this is from the days when most chips were socketed and
> > actually cost some money. Yes, this was an old 386-SX 25 I was running
> > my bbs and Fidonet mail service on.
> > I bet some of you remember Fidonet, BinkleyTerm, node lists, RBBS,
> > Maximus, Opus, and so on. Hell does anyone remember bonk and the node
> > list mungers?
> > In any case this old 386 was crankin' for its time, but it had one
> > incredibly odd problem. You could put a floppy in, read, copy from it,
> > and all that no problem. If you attempted to write to it the trouble
> > would start. Files on the disk would disappear or the disk would just
> > turn out trashed. Months went by with every possible diagnostic trick
> > done and never did find the problem. I ended up deciding it was the DMA
> > chip on the board, but never got a chance to replace it. Ended up
> > tossing the board or giving it away I can't remember, but upgraded to a
> > screamming 386-DX 33.
> > And to think I ran that bbs on an AST 286 with 130Mb hd and that was
> > considered one of the largest bbs systems in the area. Oh yes screamming
> > along at 9600 baud.<grin>
> > I've not heard a story yet that has surprised me about hardware
> > failures. I can remember when failures were common whereas now they are
> > rear.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Speakup mailing list
>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Igor Gueths]

I'll have to agree with you on that one. Remember I was one of the
subscribers? And yes I was the one playing Tradewars and Terra Firma.

May you code in the power of the source,
may the kernel, libraries, and utilities be with you,
throughout all distributions until the end of the epoch.

On Wed, 29 Jan 2003, Charles Crawford wrote:

> Heh.  I used to be the sysop for the MCB BBS fpr almost 9 years.  PCBOARD
> with up to ten users.  Those were the days.  I miss them.
>
> -- charlie Crawford.
> At 06:29 AM 1/29/03 -0500, you wrote:
> >Of course I remember most of those pkgs... I've been running a bbs for
> >over a year now.
> >
> >--
> >A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up
> >yours!"
> >On Tue, 28 Jan 2003, Scott Howell wrote:
> >
> > > Ah, this reminds me of a very interesting problem I ran into.
> > > Mind you this is from the days when most chips were socketed and
> > > actually cost some money. Yes, this was an old 386-SX 25 I was running
> > > my bbs and Fidonet mail service on.
> > > I bet some of you remember Fidonet, BinkleyTerm, node lists, RBBS,
> > > Maximus, Opus, and so on. Hell does anyone remember bonk and the node
> > > list mungers?
> > > In any case this old 386 was crankin' for its time, but it had one
> > > incredibly odd problem. You could put a floppy in, read, copy from it,
> > > and all that no problem. If you attempted to write to it the trouble
> > > would start. Files on the disk would disappear or the disk would just
> > > turn out trashed. Months went by with every possible diagnostic trick
> > > done and never did find the problem. I ended up deciding it was the DMA
> > > chip on the board, but never got a chance to replace it. Ended up
> > > tossing the board or giving it away I can't remember, but upgraded to a
> > > screamming 386-DX 33.
> > > And to think I ran that bbs on an AST 286 with 130Mb hd and that was
> > > considered one of the largest bbs systems in the area. Oh yes screamming
> > > along at 9600 baud.<grin>
> > > I've not heard a story yet that has surprised me about hardware
> > > failures. I can remember when failures were common whereas now they are
> > > rear.
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Speakup mailing list
> >Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Jude DaShiell]

mcbbs at least had an accessible interface which is loads more than can be
said for 70% of the web.

-- 
Jude <dashielljt(at)gmpexpress-dot-net>

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[igueths]

I'll have to agree with you on that. I thought that Pcboard had a very good 
interface. 
> mcbbs at least had an accessible interface which is loads more than can be
> said for 70% of the web.
> 
> -- 
> Jude <dashielljt(at)gmpexpress-dot-net>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: unbootable HD, the solution

[Jude DaShiell]

To keep thisin the Linux area, I had used waffle bbs services in the past
on a unix system and found them to work very well too.On Thu, 30 Jan 2003
igueths@attbi.com wrote:

> Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 12:11:44 +0000
> From: igueths@attbi.com
> Reply-To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> Subject: Re: unbootable HD, the solution
>
> I'll have to agree with you on that. I thought that Pcboard had a very good
> interface.
> > mcbbs at least had an accessible interface which is loads more than can be
> > said for 70% of the web.
> >
> > --
> > Jude <dashielljt(at)gmpexpress-dot-net>
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

-- 
Jude <dashielljt(at)gmpexpress-dot-net>