berger@clio.UUCP (01/28/87)
If it's a relatively new drive, you probably don't want to use a head parking program. The more recent Seagate drives automatically retract the head on power-down. The "universal" head parking programs read your drive parameters and park the head a few tracks beyond the last track - generally well within the alternate track section and not on the track left by the manufacturer for parking the head.
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (01/30/87)
Hi, I think I shoudl ammend what I said about parking the heads on a Seagate drive. From what I observe, it seems that when operated with an adaptec controller that the drive parks itself at power off. I can't say if the Z-8 MPU or whatever is in the drive itself does this, or if it is related to the controller card. It may or may not work with a WD controller. Berger@clio alluded to the above in his posting. I have indeed noticed that the Seagate ST-238 in particular goes though a rather lengthy g-r-r-r-r-r recalibrate noise at the next reboot after it has been "parked" with the shipdisk program on the diagnostics disk. The ST-238 doesn't do that if it is just powered down. Actually, we've never lost an HDU, except for the full height 10 meg unit on one IBM-XT. Oh yes, a 30 meg HDU on an altos 586, but it got zapped by lightning, so that doesn't count for vibrational damage. --Bill Bill Mayhew Division of Basic Medical Sciences Northeastern Ohio Unviersities' College of Medicine Rootsberry Landing, OH 44272 phone: 216-325-2511 (wtm@neoucom.UUCP ...!cbatt!neoucom!wtm)
madd@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP (02/06/87)
In article <16800027@clio> berger@clio.Uiuc.ARPA writes: > >If it's a relatively new drive, you probably don't want to use a >head parking program. The more recent Seagate drives automatically >retract the head on power-down. The "universal" head parking >programs read your drive parameters and park the head a few tracks >beyond the last track - generally well within the alternate >track section and not on the track left by the manufacturer for >parking the head. Beware! "New" means "recent model" here. A good point to note is that using a head parking program on a drive that has automatic head retraction CANNOT hurt. The heads will still automatically retract. If you think that your drive is automatically parking, then neglect to use a park utility, you could be wrong and lose data. READ YOUR DRIVE SPECS! Unless they specifically state that the head retracts automatically, use a park program. Most drives that do not park come with a utility disk that has a head parker on it, but lack thereof is still not a guarantee that your drive parks by itself. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% - Jim Frost * The Madd Hacker - UUCP: ..!harvard!bu-cs!bucsb!madd | ARPANET: madd@bucsb.bu.edu CSNET: madd%bucsb@bu-cs | BITNET: cscc71c@bostonu -------------------------------+---+------------------------------------ "Oh beer, oh beer." -- Me | [=(BEER) <- Bud the Beer (cheers!)