COMPUCARE   


                   CARING FOR YOUR AMIGA  -  PART FIVE


                         By Kevan Fitzakerley



    Keeping your software (disks) in good order is a relatively easy task,
  as mentioned in CompuCare part 1.  By using disks to store data or
  programs, you have total control over the safety of such data stored. If
  you neglect to keep your disks from the risk of being damaged by not
  storing them in proper containers or away from magnetic fields etc.
  problems are sure to arise, and you could, from your own carelessness
  lose valuable information.

    Hard-drive users have a more difficult task in controlling the safety
  of programs and data, especially if the system is used by more than one
  person.

    In this part of CompuCare, we will give you some suggestions and ideas
  of performing preventive maintenance for the care of your Hard-drive
  and therefore reducing the risk of potential problems that could arise.

    Cleaning the A590

    As with your keyboard and monitor, Hard-drives are susceptible to
  external elements such as dust, power surges and the like, so let's
  begin with giving your A590 a good clean!

    Ensure that you have parked the heads - you will find a utility
  program on the A590 set-up disk called " PARK " and if your Hard-drive
  is correctly set up this program will be on it, and you will be familiar
  with its use.

    Disconnect the power to the Hard-drive and the computer; gently detach
  the unit from the A500 - you will find two screws on the 86 pin
  connector, which need only to be loosened and not removed. Turn the
  Hard-drive upside down, you will see a set of eight screws - remove the
  four outer screws and set them aside in a container.

    Remove the cover - there is a cable connected the cooling fan, remove
  this and take note of how it is connected to the PCB (Printed Circuit
  Board). If this cable is not re-connected properly then the fan will
  spin in reverse and instead of extracting the heat build-up from the
  harddrive, it will draw air from the outside and just circulate the hot
  air inside the harddrive.

    Disconnect the power cable and the ribbon cable, again taking note of
  how they are connected, Once again turn the unit upside down and remove
  the four remaining screws. Put the screws in your container, turn the
  unit the correct way up, remove the drive and the metal shielding plate
  from the PCB and set this part down in a safe place. Be careful not to
  drop or bump the drive.

    With a new small paint brush, gentle brush over the components of the
  PCB to remove any dust particles, then take your drive unit and turn it
  upside down and remove the four hex type nuts from the drive mounting
  plate and with your brush gently brush the bottom of the PCB.

    Seat the chips

    When you have completed this task, you should check that all the
  components (Chips) are correctly seated in their sockets. It is not
  uncommon for these chips to work loose, and if your drive has not been
  operating as it should this may well be the source of your problems

    Gently but firmly press down on all the chips that are fitted to the
  Chip sockets. These are easily identified, as the sockets are soldered
  to the PCB and the chips are seated in these sockets.

    Adding more RAM

    If you have not yet fitted extra RAM to your A590, this would be a
  good time to do it while you have the unit disassembled. Adding the
  extra chips is a very easy job to perform, just plug in the chips and
  set the jumper configuration - refer to your A590 manual for complete
  instructions on how to fit and configure the extra memory.  You are able
  to increase your harddrive memory in stages of 512KB, 1MB or 2MB. Your
  A590 manual recommends that you use the following memory chips: CMOS
  256K x 4 DRAMs th ese chips are usually readily available from your
  local Commodore Computer store.

    WARNING!!! Be very careful when handling Computer chips, they are
  very sensitive to static electricity, and we have previously warned
  in other parts of CompuCare about touching the legs of these chips - if
  static electricty is high it could ruin the chips.

    Re-assembling the unit

    When you have completed your cleaning and performed all your checks
  reconnect the drive mounting plate to the main PCB.  DO NOT over-
  tighten the hex nuts as you could easily snap the thread from the nuts.
  Reassemble the drive, and just before you replace the cover place one
  end of a cloth (a hankerchief is fine) in to the fan blades and with
  your fingers turn the fan - this will remove most of the dust build up.

    Replace the cover and clean the outside casing, reconnect the drive to
  your computer.

    Data Integrity

    With that part of our preventive maintenance out of the way, we will
  now look at ways to keep the data and programs that are stored on the
  harddrive as safe as possible.

    The A590 has just over 20MB of storage space, which is small compared
  to some of the other harddrives that are available from third party
  suppliers, but to the average user this amount of storage space would be
  ample.

    To safeguard your programs and data that you have or intend to store
  on any harddrive I suggest that you divide it into two partitions, which
  can be any size you prefer. For example, at present my harddrive has a
  1.5MB partition for dh0: which contains my workbench disk files etc.
  and if my unit were to crash ( which has happened on the odd occasion)
  all that I need to do is reformat that partion and replace the Workbench
  files and directories the rest of the storage space is allocated to dh1:
  where I keep my more important files and selected programs.

    Some people may say that on a 20MB unit that partioning is not worth
  the trouble, but if your harddrive has ever crashed and the information
  has been lost is a sight easier to replace 1 disk of information,
  than 21!

    Using the A590 set-up disk to set up the partitioning you then have to
  save these partitions to the harddrive, and reset and reboot the
  computer for them to be recognised by the drive. Each of the partitions
  then needs to be formated before it can be used.  I prefer to format
  the partitions by using the "INITIALIZE" command fron the pull-down menu
  of WorkBench as the set-up disk copies certain files that I do not feel
  are required, instead after formating the partitions I use a utility
  program, such as SID (Availiable from all good PD suppliers) to copy the
  files and directories that I need to DH0: and also create directories on
  DH1:.

    With floppy disks it is easy to protect the information contained from
  being accidentally deleted by ensuring that the Write Protect Tab is on.
  Harddrives are a bit more difficult, but not impossible.

    You need to establish what you can, and what you can not afford to
  lose in the case of a wrong decision on your part or by others who may
  use or share your system.  You can protect the information that is
  stored on the harddrive by setting the protection flags for each of the
  files that needs protecting. This process is not at all difficult to
  perform but it can be quite time comsuming - details of how to set the
  protection flags can be found in the manuals that came with your
  Computer.

     BACK UP THAT DRIVE !!

    It is important to backup your harddrive on a regular basis and
  the type of files that you have will determine how often that you need
  to do this job. With my own situation, I have files that I backup daily
  and weekly, as most of my computer use involves extensive use of
  Spreadsheets, Databases, DeskTop Publishing and wordprocessing, so I
  can not afford to lose any of this information. There is no need to rush
  out and buy an expensive harddrive backup program, all you need to do is
  copy the files that you want to backup to a disk using your favourite
  directory utility. Set the disk up with directories the same way that
  they are on your harddrive to make it easy to remember when you back-up
  your files.