🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7606@geac.UUCP> cbs@geac.UUCP (Chris Syed) writes:
>   I just gone from 3.0 Xenix to 3.4 on my Intel 310 and found, to my
>   horror, that all my tarred disks - like /etc,  /usr... give me
>   soft error - CRC checks in the first few tracks...
>   There dosen't seem to be a problem reading & writing new stuff, 
>   but here's a mystery - one floppy - with my own directory - loads fine!

The easiest guess is that they rebuilt the floppy drivers for 3.4 using
new, stricter timing parameters for things like head settle and
inter-track.  When this works it has the effect of improving diskette
performance slightly, which is why it's tempting to do it.  But marginal
disks that used to read successfully can break like a soggy pretzel when
you change the timings.

Something like this happened to me under iRMX86 on my 310.  Fortunately
I was able to go in with the Interactive Configuration Utility (ICU) and
fudge the duib's with slacker numbers, rebuild and read my disks OK.  I
don't know whether your Xenix gives you this kind of luxury.  If not,
you may have to ask your FAE to gen you a version.  A little drive
maintenance might not hurt either since the marginality of the disks in
question might derive in part from head dirt or azimuth problems.  Good
luck.
-- 
"My God, Thiokol, when do you     \\	Tom Neff
want me to launch -- next April?"  \\	uunet!bfmny0!tneff