file extraction error

[generaldefault]

I am at my wits end. I have been through alot with my Mackie MDR. Im fairly familiar with message 43, making and installing OS disks, etc. This one is killing me. My recorder has always been finicky about hard drives. Some work, some don't. Over time, fewer and fewer work in the recorder at all. Recently, I only had the internal hard drive and one external hard drive). Then, finally, the internal hard drive stopped working as well. It would not load the OS and I tried many hard drives. I finally made new installation disks (even though the ones I had worked the previous time) and it loaded the first one, so I was quite hopeful. But when I insert the 2nd disk, I invariably get "file extraction error". I have read alot of what you and others have said on this subject regarding it "most likely" being the installation disk. I have made about 6 of them now (from the same source as the 1st disk (that works). Should I just keep making more disks until one works? I have re-seated everything, but I am about to do that again. Could it be a mother board issue? (If I was confident that was the issue, I would even buy another one used as I feel fairly adept at getting this up and running. I've been successful several times before) From what I understand, these are always fixable, and mine has been fixed several times (upgrade, re-loading OS, re-seating, etc). But this feels like I just have nothing else I can try. I have Mike Rivers' book and have actually started printing out anything I find on forums (I assume that will all be gone one day as well). If you can think of anything that I may have overlooked that would only affect the 2nd installation disk, I would be infinitely grateful for any input.

[Y-my-R]

How are you making the floppy disks?

I haven't done this in a long time, but if I recall correctly, the "disk images" you can download from this page, aren't really just "disk images."

You have to download them, and then extract them (locally on your PC - not directly to floppy disks)... after that, there should be an executable (.exe) file, that is a program that lets you write the disk image to the floppy disk.

So, what you download, is really a disk image that comes with a special program that needs to be used to write that image to a floppy disk.

If you try to instead extract what's in the zip file you download directly to a floppy disk, it's too large (at least for some of the disks) and you'd get an error message.

...and if I remember right, that message was very similar (or the same) as the file extraction error you describe.

So, if you haven't done this, yet, download the Windows/PC disc images (unless you have an old PowerPC Mac that still had a floppy drive), then extract/unzip the downloaded files.

Then, on a PC with a floppy drive, you have to run the .exe file that got extracted, and use the app that opens to write the image file that .exe file also contains, to a floppy disk.

Do that 3 times, for the 3 floppy disks (...or maybe it was only 2 floppy disks for the HDR/MDR and 3 for the D8B? Well, do it however many times as there are floppy images and as many disks as need to be written).

Hopefully, when booting the HDR/MDR from the first disk, you'd already get a "format" prompt, so you can erase the system drive and re-install fresh.

If you don't, there's an .ini file on the floppy disk (forgot the exact name... if you get stuck there, let me know and I'll figure it out). Edit that .ini file on a PC and add a new line at the end that reads "format:on" (no parenthesis and no spaces anywhere), then put that edited file back on the floppy disk and boot the HDR/MDR from it. Now you should get a "format harddrive?" prompt.

If you already DID use the exe inside the downloaded disk images to write the floppy disks, but get that error, then I'd think there's either a problem with the downloaded disk image files, or the floppy drive in the PC has an issue and doesn't want to play along.

...but again... if you were trying to extract the zip files directly from the downloaded zip file to floppy disks, it would be too large to fit on a floppy disk (...resulting in an "extraction error" because of that), and it wouldn't work like that in the first place.
So, if you haven't already... extract the zip files on your PC harddrive, then use the .exe app that got extracted to write the image(s) to floppy disks.

Best of luck!

[generaldefault]

There are 2 disks to make, which I have done successfully on a number of occasions, including editing the disk to change to format:on. When using install disks in the recorder, It gets through the first disk, including the format question. It verifies that the drive is formatted and ready for install of the OS. When inserting the 2nd disk, I get the error of 1)memory extraction error or 2)file extraction error. Same hard drive (tho I've tried several), same disks, no explanation for the 2 different errors. i have made 5 or 6 of the 2nd disk since I know floppys can be finnicky and unreliable. But after that many of them failing, I am wondering if there is something else I am missing. I know I am making the disks correctly because: 1) the first disk works and 2) I've done this entire process successfully in the past. I am going to take everything out of the recorder, blow out the slots with compressed air and re-seat everything. It is the last thing I can think of to try. I remember Mike Rivers saying that although these recorders are finnicky and you need to reload the OS every now and then, these can last a lifetime. Since I always considered him the guru of these things, I hang on those words. But at this point Im just trying the same things over and over again. Thank you SO much for your response!

[generaldefault]

I made fresh disks, reseated every card inside the unit, blew out the slots with compressed air, cleared CMOS by moving the jumper (and moving it back), went into bios settings and IT BOOTED UP! I think it was the reseating of the cards and blowing out the slots that did it as I have tried all of the other steps multiple times. People have mentioned before that reseating the cards can be a cure. I think I just proved it. I am puzzled how they ever got "unseated" in the first place (while the machine was being used no less), and I don't think anyone knows really. My resident computer guru simply says, "Yep, that's computers for you". I will continue to come back to this forum and monitor for possible new victims who need the kind of help I've gotten here. I am INFINITELY GRATEFUL for those who are here helping each other!

[Y-my-R]

It's great to hear you got it working!

I was kinda busy doing a mod to my HDR, but now that that's done, I figured I'd have another go at my MDR, that didn't boot up anymore, last time I tried. As it turned out, the BIOS had the drive detected as "LBA" but in my case, switching it to "Large" instead allowed me to boot it back up.

I made an image of the drive via an old version of Norton Ghost - so, as of a moment ago, I DO have a working installation of the MDR operating system. So, if you have a harddrive that was formatted via an HDR/MDR or D8B, then you could simply copy those files onto your harddrive, and it should boot your MDR.

Let me know if you still need those files, or if you were finally able to install from the floppies (sounds like you did... or at least the original installation of the harddrive came back after cleaning up... either way, sounds like you're up and running).

I'll likely report my findings in a new post, but my intention is to try to convert my MDR to an HDR... looks like there's really no way to just "flash" the BIOS (spent a few hours trying, just now), so I'll have to order a "large harddrive HDR BIOS chip" and wait for it to get here, before I can close the MDR back up.

Anyway... I'll be having an MDR on the bench and opened up over the weekend (probably even longer)... so, if you run into any other issues while I have it open, I could just take a look and compare with mine

(I have an HDR, but I also have an MDR. The idea at the time was, that I'd leave the MDR in the rehearsal room to record my band, and then load that drive into the HDR at home and be able to do rough-mixes straight from the HDR/D8B combo. I haven't been in a band the last few years, though... so the MDR only collected dust, lately, and I didn't do the same mods as I did with my HDR. But now that I'll open it up, I'll try to make all the same mods as on my HDR (CF card for OS accessible from the back, quieter fans, SATA/SSD drive caddy where the floppy drive used to be in ADDITION to the IDE drive caddy the HDR/MDR comes with... with both working... so, quite the job).