info-mac@uw-beaver.UUCP (11/02/84)
From: Michael Rubin <RUBIN@COLUMBIA-20.ARPA> I was inputting a large MacDraw document, and had been working for a few hours with the disk spinning continually as MacDraw swapped. Suddenly there was a very bright blue flash from the front of the Mac, and a slight "pop", and the disk stopped spinning and the mouse locked up. I hit the reset switch, fearing the worst, but MacDraw and my document were still on disk; however, a lot of the more recently added parts had gone away. I'm not sure whether data was actually lost or I just hadn't been saving as often as I thought. I could see a spot about 1/2 mm diameter on the media surface by holding it up to the light; but the Verify command in Disk Utility claimed everything was okay. I made a copy of the disk with Disk Copy just to be sure; no difference. The Mac and the drive are obviously still working. What must have happened was the disk (a Sony) had been spinning so long that it (or some part of the drive) built up a static charge and eventually sparked! The weather hasn't been especially dry; I hate to think about what might happen in the winter when the steam heat comes on. I'm buying Maxell disks now anyway because they're cheaper, but should probably talk to Sony and Apple.... --Mike Rubin <Rubin@Columbia-20> -------