Performa 467 won't unstuff

Hi,

To begin with, it would probably not be a bad idea to carry out the usual things, such as resetting the PRAM, rebuilding the Desktop (hold down the Command and Option keys during the startup sequence), and verifying the hard disk drive structure via Disk First Aid (7.2.2).

You will have to start the Performa from a Disk Tools floppy, or another disk (with Disk First Aid), in order to repair the hard disk.

If necessary, a floppy made on a Mac by Disk Copy 4.2 (the Make A Copy button) from the Network Access Disk 7.5 download ( here) can be used as a startup disk. The Network Access floppy disk can easily be modified to hold a small disk utility (either Disk First Aid 7.2.2 or Apple HD SC Setup 7.3.5). Post back if you need additional information.

It may be wise to lock (write-protect) the tools floppy before running the test.

If/when Disk First Aid shows that the hard disk is OK, you could try to update the hard disk driver as well, through Update in Apple HD SC Setup (7.3.5).

If nothing else works, you may want to reformat (initialise) the entire hard disk (this will permanently erase it). Use Apple HD SC Setup 7.3.5 (or Drive Setup 1.7.3) for this.

Generally speaking, do not try to manipulate Mac disks/files on a PC (unless a special utility is used). Use another Macintosh computer instead. Otherwise, files may become damaged.

BTW, the Command key is the one with an Apple.

Jan

mscene
One possibility is that your FDD is misaligned. Not finding the tracks where it 'expects' them, the drive concludes that the disk is corrupt. That is consistent with its distaste for all diskettes.

Try the effect of formatting a new diskette. Then write something-or-other to the diskette, eject it, and reinsert it. If the drive recognizes the floppy correctly, and if the floppy mounts on the desktop and allows you to read it, you can safely conclude that the drive can read disks that it has written. If another drive cannot read those disks, you have clinched the misalignment hypothesis.

Remedy? Replace the FDD.


Apple IIe; 68K: 11DT + 4PB; PPC: 5DT + 3PB; G3: 6DT System 6.0.8 to OS 10.4.x

mscene,

"I could not unstuff the other archives on the disk unless I first copied them to the hard drive.
But that's just an annoyance which I think is a symptom of this problem.
The problem is that I can't unstuff any thing else. If I try, StuffIt opens, does nothing, and closes irrespective if this is done from the floppy disk, or the hard drive."


I believe the solution may be in the details you just provided.

First you say that making a copy to the hard drive first worked. Could it be that you have more than one version of Stuffit and the auto open feature triggers a different version of Stuffit based on where the file is that you are trying to open?

I use Word 5.1 almost exclusively but I have Word 2001 installed on one drive. Word 2004 is also installed on one drive but is almost worthless compared to 2001. If I double click on a word document, MS, in their infinite wisdom, assumes that I want to use newer, unreliable software instead of older reliable software. It automatically opens the file in the latest version of the software that it sees. I immediately close the new application and open the alias for Word 5.1.

To avoid this problem, I usually open the version I want and then open a document. If an older version of an application is already open, the built in artificial intelligence assumes that I actually want to open the document in the loaded software instead of loading a newer version, too. How prescient.

It seems to make sense that different versions of Stuffit are behaving differently. Otherwise, it is hot here and there is a lake nearby. Tell me to go jump in. : )

Jim˜