From the 11-91 463 ADAM Newsletter. 

STRANGE BUT TRUE
DISK DRIVE PROBLEM
by Jerry Vrancks - 463 ADAM

     Thi strang bu tru proble ma b  isolate         
incident bu  thoug  woul shar i wit yo anyway.
     Jus recentl  purchase  secon Colec 16 dis      
drive   hooke i u t m ADA a driv one   the      
boote SpeedyWrit II i loade wit n problem   wrot  
shor letter printe an save it.
     Whil  wa i th compute  figure  woul boo      
PowerPain an finis  pictur  ha started   inserte   
th PowerPain dis an pulle th reset i didn' load   
remove th disk pu i bac i th driv an pulle th    
rese again  N go i woul no load   the trie t     
load basic, it wouldn't load either. I tried ADAMLink, same  
thing, ADAM just kept going back to SmartWriter.  I then     
booted SpeedyWrite again, it loaded.  I switched my original 
disk drive back to drive #1,  everything loaded.  I again    
made the newer disk drive #1, SpeedyWrite would load but     
basic, PowerPaint, and ADAMLink would not.  (The SpeedyWrite 
disk was formated and copied on the some disk as the other   
software) I tried more things then I can remember, the       
results were always the same.
     Knowing SpeedyWrite would load I had my doubts that the 
entire problem was in the disk drive, even though everything 
loaded using the other drive.  I decided to try the original 
PowerPaint disk in the newer drive.  I inserted it and       
pulled the reset, there it was, that little tune I find      
myself humming at times.  I then formated a disk and made a  
new back up copy using the newer disk drive.  I booted the   
new copy of PowerPaint in this same drive, it loaded and ran 
with no problem.  I did the some with basic and ADAMLink,    
they also loaded and ran.  I then switch my original disk    
drive back to drive # 1 and booted these new copies in it,   
everything loaded, (I hope this isn't getting too            
confusing).
     I know some of you are going to say, "Did you have the  
disk drive switches in the right posessions when you were    
doing all this switching back and forth?"  Yes I did, I also 
cleaned the heads and made new connecting cables.
     I have no idea why the newer disk drive will recognize  
some but not other disks that were formated and copied in    
the older disk drive, yet the older drive will load anything 
formated and copied on the newer disk drive.
     The only difference between the two drives is my        
original drive has a high speed formating chip in it.  I     
also have used different formating software.
     If you ever encounter a similar problem, you may want   
to try formating and making a new copy in that drive before  
you send it off to the repair shop.  This will not fix the   
problem, but may be a way to work around it.  Who knows?  It 
worked for me.

MORE DISK DRIVE
by Dean Roades - 463 ADAM

A problem I have been encountering lately is cataloging      
disks in SpeedyWrite.  The ADAM News Network disks I get     
from Barry Wilson don't always display the entire catalog.   
If I have printed a catalog in BASIC I can enter the name    
and it will load, so I know my drive can read the directory. 
It seems to be a problem with SpeedyWrite as this happens on 
both drives.  I have tried to see if it is a particular type 
of file, but no common thread has been found yet.  This is   
not a major problem, just aggravating.  After I have loaded  
the file and saved it, it will appear. 

EDITORS NOTE:  If anyone else has run into these problems,   
drop us a line and tell us how you fixed it.  (If you did!)  
Some problems are as simple as having the drive too close to 
the monitor.  Hopefully this is just as simple.  DAR.


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