Sorry for my continuous questions; just one minor concern

[Apostrophe]

Hi everyone,

You're all probably sick of hearing of my Centris.

Okay, for those of you that don't know, it works now.

But I have one little detail I ran into today. See, it works fine, like I said, but today was the first time I've been on it since I fixed it. It's been about two days. Anyway, I started it up, not bothering to boot it from the disk, because it was installed, right? Wrong. It told me that I didn't shut the computer down properly last time I was on it, but I'm sure I did. I had to completely reinstall the Operating System on it, and only then did it work.

Now, it did tell me that it had found a problem with the hard drive, but the problem was fixed. So now it'll probably work fine without the OS; tomorrow I'll fire it up again and find out.

But just in case I have to install that OS yet again, might anyone be able to tell me what I might have done wrong?

Thanks,

-Apostrophe

 

[mac-man6]

To sound like a Brit, sounds like a dodgy drive. Have you tried checking your drive with Disk Doctor?

 

[tomlee59]

I second that opinion. During a proper shutdown, a bit gets cleared (or set; don't remember which, but it doesn't matter here). That bit is stored on the HD, so if you properly shut things down, but you get a complaint at next boot, that could very well be a sign that the HD is to blame.

 

[Apostrophe]

Okay, thanks, guys. Just one question...do you think that it's possible that the problem is actually my internal floppy drive?

I ran Disk First Aid on my hard drive, and it turned out OK. I then ran it on my internal floppy drive...and it couldn't even read it. I also happen to know that my floppy drive was broken to begin with. I'm going to try and get a hold of another one, but before I do so, I need someone's opinion. So is it possible, do you think, for my problem to be the floppy drive?

Thanks,

-Apostrophe

 

[tomlee59]

Disk First Aid, especially of that vintage, doesn't check very thoroughly. I doubt that it would catch the sort of error that would cause the flag-clearing problem. You'll need a more industrial-strength utility that does reads and writes, multiple times.

As for the floppy theory, highly doubtful. Since you already know it's bad, it is a total non-surprise that DFA thinks it's bad, too. No data about shutdown status gets stored within a floppy drive, so that's not the first (or even second) place to look.

 

[Charlieman]

You'll need a more industrial-strength utility that does reads and writes, multiple times.

During the 68040 and early PPC era, I always lived by Central Point Utilities which solved disk problems much more effectively than the more popular Norton Utilities. Of course, Central Point was absorbed by Symantec and the really great utilities entered a back hole.

 

[Bunsen]

I've had great success with Lido

 

[equill]

... You're all probably sick of hearing of my Centris ...

Not at all. If you don't post your questions, how are we to know which answersto give you?

As tomlee59 has pointed out, a formal Shut Down is an orderly process, with all the most recent bits dusted, polished and put away properly in order on the shelves. If the system is abruptly shut down without this housekeeping, or if the system even thinks that this has happened, it will whinge at you and set Disk First Aid loose on your drive before startup is allowed to complete.

If real damage has occurred, it is likely to be to the file directory, especially if the drive is already fragmented, and to such things as the boot blocks. Partitions (there are at least five on an HDD with but a single visible data partition, the 'volume' that you see mounted on the desktop) are not likely to be affected, but pointers are. A file utility such as DiskWarrior 2.1.1 is invaluable. The commercial CD has four bootable OSs from 7.6.1 to 9.2.2, and can straighten out HDDs down to System 7.1, but 7.5.3 is a recommended limit. It will also fix boot blocks after it has replaced the file directory, if need be.

And it comes with a companion app. on the CD, PlusOptimizer, which works only on PPC machines, and does a fine job of file defragmentation (as opposed to the directory fragmentation that is attended to by DiskWarrior).

All of this is quite separate from what a disk utility does, which is to look after your drive's logical structures, during setup and repair. DW will not touch a drive unless the partitions are in good order.

de

 

[alk]

If the system is abruptly shut down without this housekeeping, or if the system even thinks that this has happened, it will whinge at you and set Disk First Aid loose on your drive before startup is allowed to complete.

Only on Mac OS 8.5 and higher. On System 7 and Mac OS 8/8.1, it just pops up a dialog box telling you that you're a bad person for not using the proper shutdown command.
Peace,

Drew

 

[equill]

... On System 7 and Mac OS 8/8.1, it just pops up a dialog box telling you that you're a bad person for not using the proper shutdown command ...

Verily. But, even to this moment I am not aware what the System/OS in use on the Centris is. Although it is a fair assumption that it is OS 8.1 or below, the events after the message may have been either obligatory through failure of the Mac to boot at all, or belt-and-braces thoroughness on Apostrophe's part—especially given Apostrophe's screen name, a 'turning away' in Greek, presumably of ill fortune in this case—so as to avoid a failure to boot.

I still look forward to reading that Apostrophe, under the shield of DW, has conquered his opposition.

de