[Coco] HDB-DOS error - HARD DRIVE NOT FOUND

[gene heskett]

On Tuesday, January 03, 2012 12:05:48 AM Jim Hickle did opine:

> Any ideas why HDB-DOS reports "HARD DRIVE NOT FOUND" though all drives
> work with NITROS9?
> 
> TC^3 controller, disks are: 0 - hard drive, 5 - ZIP drive, 6 - CD-ROM
> 
> HDB-DOS and this setup worked okay a couple years ago.  Now it doesn't
> find either the hard or ZIP drives.  I tried running wizard.bas from a
> new copy of the HDB-DOS disk.  Still doesn't find drive, but now it
> gives me 15 seconds to choose to restart, boot os9 and something about
> drives 0 through 3.
> 
> NITROS9 is working, but the weird thing is that at first it wouldn't
> boot, then things started working a bit at a time. This took place over
> about a week.
> 
> - First didn't recognize any SCSI drive.
> - Then it would boot to the hard drive from a very few of my boot
> floppies, worked with the hard disk (/s0) but trying to access the
> others gave error 246 - NOT READY, and then /s0 also gave error 246. -
> Next /s5 and /sc6 could be accessed, but only if system was booted from
> the Superdriver disk. - Eventually all drives work and system boots
> from any of the boot floppies.
> 
> Another odd thing is that only once did the system time get set from the
> clock in the TC^3.  Every startup before and after put us back in
> January 1900.  This evening it started setting the time, though I
> hadn't changed anything (including the floppy from which it booted).
> 
I think you are, by exercising the card edge connectors, gradually grinding 
your way through a 10 year growth of oxidized contacts.  If those aren't 
gold flashed, I'd scrub then up with a green scotch-brite pad, wipe them 
clean with a cloth soaked in paint thinner alcohol, and see what happens.  
Cycle the IDC connectors off and back on the pins a few times while you are 
at it.

Cheers, Gene
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