willy@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (Willy Konijnenberg) (02/13/90)
My ST238R harddisk, connected to an ST11 controller, just developed a nasty problem. When the system is running, the chance that the harddisk locks up when it is accessed increases with time. When it locks up, the only remedy is to reboot and eventually even that won't help, since the drive will already lock up when the partion table is read during startup. At this point, I have to switch the system off, let it cool down for a while and try again. This all happens within minutes, which makes the system virtually useless. With "lock up", I mean that when the drive is accessed, the activity light goes on and never off again, while the system is waiting eternally for the i/o operation to finish. MINIX has the same problem, so it is not related to the BIOS, but on the other hand I have never seen the initial access of the controller hang, getting the drive parameters, which gives hope that it might be a controller problem. Note that until the drive locks up, it works just fine. All my data is still there and given enough reboot and off/on cycles, I'll get it all off. It's just so impractical to use... Did anyone ever hear of such a problem anywhere? Any hints? Is the problem in the controller or in the harddisk? Can it be fixed, or should I prepare for buying a new controller and/or drive? Please reply by email to the address below. I usually can't keep up with the traffic on this newsgroup, so I might miss a follow-up. Thanks in advance, -- Willy Konijnenberg <willy@idca.tds.philips.nl>