MathGroup Archive 2003

[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Search the Archive

Re: Weird Problem on an old Macintosh

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg40664] Re: [mg40634] Weird Problem on an old Macintosh
  • From: Selwyn Hollis <selwynh at earthlink.net>
  • Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 03:12:46 -0400 (EDT)
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

My guess is that the old floppies have somehow degraded to the point 
that they're gunking up the heads on the drives. Can you rescue the 
software from his old hard drive?

Good luck...

-----
Selwyn Hollis
http://www.math.armstrong.edu/faculty/hollis


On Friday, April 11, 2003, at 02:05  AM, Technicians wrote:

> I am helping out a retired friend with a registered version of
> Mathematica v2.1
>
> Yes; I know it's old but so is his computer, (a Macintosh SE20HD). It
> worked for him so he kept using it. The inevitable happened and the old
> beast went belly up just as he had a deadline.
>
> No prob he thought, "I'll reinstall it on another machine and work from
> the backups of my work". The other machine is also old, a Macintosh 
> LCI,
> and working with compatible system software. The first disc in the 
> drive
> coughs up a "This disk is unreadable:" dialogue. It never read a floppy
> disc again. Okay, he's unlucky, the floppy drive has died.
>
> This is where I come in; when he referred to me for help. I'm 
> definitely
> no expert but I'm no slouch either. I've got a spare floppy drive, an
> old working Macintosh Classic I which I use as a diagnostic machine in
> such circumstances, the skills/software to test his Mathematica discs
> and change the drive over. But, when I put the first of the Mathematica
> discs into the drive of the Classic "this disk is unreadable:" etc! nor
> can I read any other floppy now either.
>
> I cannot see how locked 800k floppies can be back written with code to
> prevent reinstallation (the way some of those older protection schemes
> worked) nor do I believe (as my friend does) that there is malicious
> code to 'kill' attempted reinstalls on the discs. But after having two
> different machines go belly up with the same discs I am beginning to 
> wonder.
>
> Anyone got any ideas or seen a similar type of problem? I am NOT trying
> to get around any copy protection scheme that may be there but I AM
> trying to find out if there any history of such problems. And if there
> is any cure/fix.
>
>
>



  • Prev by Date: Re: Weird Problem on an old Macintosh
  • Next by Date: RE: Weirdness with symbol Degree vis Units
  • Previous by thread: Re: Weird Problem on an old Macintosh
  • Next by thread: Re: Weird Problem on an old Macintosh