harrow@bagels.dec.com (Jeff Harrow, NCSE BXB1-2/E02 DTN=293-5128) (10/26/87)
WARNING TO MAC II OWNERS:
I just had an unnerving experience with my Mac II (with a happy
outcome) and the following may keep you from loosing data:
I was busily using my Mac II with its 40 Megabyte internal Apple
drive, when the system froze during a disk transfer. A reboot
and all was well, until the same thing happened a bit later when
I caused another disk access.
Experimentation after things got progressively worse (it would
hang halfway through the boot process, etc.) while still booting
fine from a floppy, indicated that the hard drive would not
appear to the Mac at all, unless I powered off for about 5
minutes. Then, it would work for a couple of minutes before
making a slight "clunking" noise and becoming unavailable to the
SCSI buss (as evidenced by HD Setup not seeing the drive).
The system was, of course, on the verge of being out of warranty,
and besides, I expected to have a real problem getting the
"typical" computer store technician to understand the problem and
diagnose the problem correctly. I then expected them not to have
whatever replacement part was needed for the Mac II (since it's
rather new to the market).
With trepidation, I called the folks at Computer Mart of New
Hampshire in Nashua, NH (not where I purchased the machine) and
spoke to Mike. He listened to my symptoms and said "...that
sounds familiar; just a second..." When he returned he asked me
to check the serial number of my hard disk drive (NOT the Mac
II's serial number), and it was between:
87105 - 87168
He indicated that this was a known problem with some of this
range of drives, that he had a replacement in front of him, and
that there would be no charge; how soon would I like to bring it
in (expected repair time = 10 minutes to swap the drive).
I brought it in that morning at which point he offered to attempt
to copy the hard drive's data to a temporary drive before
swapping my drive (of course I DID have backups...), swapped the
drive after erasing it (to preserve the sanctity of my files),
ran a test on the new one, and I was on my way.
I was REALLY impressed with this knowledge and service, and
figure that taking the time to put out a GOOD word is as
important as putting out the bad ones. Kudos to this dealer for
supplying the service that I want and anticipate, but so rarely
get!
If you have a Mac II with an internal Apple 40 Megabyte drive
that falls between those serial numbers, you might want to check
with your service folks to see about replacing the drive before
it becomes unavailable, taking your data with it.
Disclaimer: I have no connection whatever with Computer Mart of
New Hampshire other than as a happy customer, and these are of
course MY opinions, and not Digital's.
Jeff Harrow
Work address:
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