samc@hpccc.HP.COM (Samuel Chau) (02/03/89)
I have a pair of Seagate ST-251-1 40MB drives (less than a year old) and have been experiencing what I would call a "head banging" problem. The drives make loud "clunk clunk" sounds just before they are accessed at boot time. Entering disk partitioning software such as PARTED of SpeedStor also triggers the sounds. This effect has appeared with the Seagates working with a number of hard disk controllers including the Western Digital WD1006-WAH, Adaptec ACB2372A, and the Perstor PS180-16F, and on machines including a 8MHz Vectra and a 20MHz 386 system with an AMI BIOS (dated 1/13/88). I know I'm not supposed to use the ST-251-1's with non-MFM encoding schemes, but the drives have worked successfully with just about every controller I've tried, and in every case the clunking sounds were present. The drives have shown virtually no signs of deterioration, and have been working perfectly for over six months now, but the sounds still worry me. I have heard a rumor that Seagate might have removed an IR sensor from the ST-251-1 units so as to save manufacturing cost. Could this be impairing the ability of the heads to re-seek to track 0? Or is it that because of the lack of feedback from the sensor, the heads are being stepped in an open-looped fashion so they eventually bump against the stopper to make the sound? Does anyone have similar experiences? Any light shed on the subject will be highly appreciated. Sam Chau HP Cupertino samc@hpda (408) 447-0238 #include <std_disclaimer.h>
dr@skivs.UUCP (David Robins) (02/05/89)
I have been using a Seagate 277R (RLL coding) 65 Meg. drive with abn Adaptec 2372A card. It is running under the standard FDISK partitions. I have had the same head-banging on bootup access noise, intermittently ever since the system was new. It has been in service about 5 months, without any problems. I also thought it could be the lack of an optical track-0 sensor, too. I am used to this on my Apple //e 5-1/4 floppy drives. There is no track-0 sensor, and the Apple Dos 3.3 is set to back-step 40 steps, if it needs to calibrate, such as on first disk access, and if it has has a certain number of read error trying to access a file. Although it uses 35 track drives, it takes 40 steps back, so you get between 5 and 40 chatters, depending on where the head started. I thought all hard disks used an IR sensor for this. -- David Robins, M.D. (ophthalmologist / electronics engineer) The Smith-Kettlewell Institute of Visual Science, *** net: uunet!skivs!dr 2232 Webster St, San Francisco CA 94115 *** 415/561-1705 (voice) The opinions expressed herein do not reflect the opinion of the Institute!
nanook@novavax.UUCP (Keith Dickinson) (02/05/89)
in article <5060049@hpccc.HP.COM>, samc@hpccc.HP.COM (Samuel Chau) says: > > I have a pair of Seagate ST-251-1 40MB drives (less than a year old) and have > been experiencing what I would call a "head banging" problem. The drives > make loud "clunk clunk" sounds just before they are accessed at boot time. > Entering disk partitioning software such as PARTED of SpeedStor also triggers > the sounds. The sound you hear is the actuator arm striking what is called the "outer crash stop." This will not damage the drive in any way (as a matter of fact it's designed to handle the stresses caused bye it), but it does indicate a problem on the drive. On every STEPPER drive that Seagate makes (exceptions are the 400 series and other stone aged drives) there is a pattern written on the disk called an Index Pattern. This pattern is used to tell the drive when it is at one of two places: 1> Track -1 & 2> Last Track +~3. These are used by the drive when it first powers up to quickly locate the heads. If the index tracks have somehow been erased (as it sounds), then the drive will be lost on initial power up. It may also take it longer for the drive to recover in case of a mis-seek. The drive 'should' work for you just fine, but if the drive is under waranty I'd suggest you trade it in just in case. After all, you can't be sure WHY the index pattern was nuked to begin with. > > <Long discussion on hard drive controllers removed> Like I said. It's the drive, not the controller. Don't worry about it. > > I have heard a rumor that Seagate might have removed an IR sensor from the > ST-251-1 units so as to save manufacturing cost. Could this be impairing > the ability of the heads to re-seek to track 0? Or is it that because of > the lack of feedback from the sensor, the heads are being stepped in an > open-looped fashion so they eventually bump against the stopper to make > the sound? Again, there is no sensor as you describe in the ST251. Those were used in the pre-historic 400 series (and such monsters :). > Does anyone have similar experiences? Any light shed on the subject will be > highly appreciated. I have a drive (ST-238) that I've been running for about 6 months without any index pattern on it. It has worked ok. It sounds TERRIBLE on power up, or if it mis-seeks, but the reliability of the data is excelent. The board finaly went south on me and I had to get it repaired. > > > Sam Chau > HP Cupertino > samc@hpda > (408) 447-0238 > > #include <std_disclaimer.h> Keith Dickinson --- _ /| | Fidonet : 369/2 [(305) 421-8593] Brave Mew World South \'o.O' | Internet : nanook@muadib.FIDONET.ORG =(___)= | UUCP : (novavax,hoptoad!ankh,muadib)!nanook U | USNail : 433 SE 13th CT. J-202, Deerfield Beach, Fl. 33441 Ack! | Disclamer: This message was created by a faulty AI program. Don't blame me...I voted for Bill'n'Opus in '88