ed@odi.com (Ed Schwalenberg) (01/09/91)
I have a system from the dawn of time: the original HP-110 "Nomad" laptop computer, an HP-IL to HP-IB converter, and a 9133D 720K floppy/ 14 MB disk. This is all circa 1984, and has run flawlessly until now. The floppy is still happy, but the hard disk now returns garbage from reads (no errors, just bogus data) and reports "Media Error" when I try to do a DOS format on it. Any clues? I suspect I may need to do a low-level format on the drive; any idea how I go about doing that?
rjn@hpfcso.HP.COM (Bob Niland) (01/09/91)
re: > ...9133D 720K floppy/ 14 MB disk. > ...but the hard disk now returns garbage from reads (no errors, just bogus > data) and reports "Media Error" when I try to do a DOS format on it. > Any clues? I suspect I may need to do a low-level format on the drive; > any idea how I go about doing that? Hook it up to an HP 9000 Series 200, 300 or 400 system, under the BASIC, Pascal or HP-UX operating systems. Perform a "mediainit" operation ("INITIALIZE" in BASIC). Regards, Hewlett-Packard Bob Niland Internet: rjn@hpfcrjn.FC.HP.COM 3404 East Harmony Road UUCP: [hplabs|hpfcse]!hpfcrjn!rjn Ft Collins CO 80525-9599
vera@cadence.com (Vera Vallentin-Price) (01/10/91)
In article <1991Jan8.161027.4353@odi.com> ed@odi.com (Ed Schwalenberg) writes: >I have a system from the dawn of time: the original HP-110 "Nomad" laptop >computer, an HP-IL to HP-IB converter, and a 9133D 720K floppy/ 14 MB disk. >This is all circa 1984, and has run flawlessly until now. The floppy is >still happy, but the hard disk now returns garbage from reads >(no errors, just bogus data) and reports "Media Error" when I try to do a >DOS format on it. > >Any clues? I suspect I may need to do a low-level format on the drive; >any idea how I go about doing that? I am having a similar problem and would like some information too: I use the same model as Ed (above) with an HP150. It had worked great until a year ago when the floppy unit went out (it "ate" my disks making them unreadable by the other dual floppy unit). Now, the hard drive does not "get ready" and I lost access to all my data on it. Does anyone know where these units can get repaired? And if so, how much I need to spend approximately to have it repaired? Any pointers or advice is greatly appreciated. -vera Vera Vallentin-Price 408-245-0589 (h) 408-944-7605 (w) vera@cadence.com
onymouse@netcom.UUCP (John Debert) (01/10/91)
From article <1991Jan8.161027.4353@odi.com>, by ed@odi.com (Ed Schwalenberg): > I have a system from the dawn of time: the original HP-110 "Nomad" laptop > computer, an HP-IL to HP-IB converter, and a 9133D 720K floppy/ 14 MB disk. > This is all circa 1984, and has run flawlessly until now. The floppy is > still happy, but the hard disk now returns garbage from reads > (no errors, just bogus data) and reports "Media Error" when I try to do a > DOS format on it. > > Any clues? I suspect I may need to do a low-level format on the drive; > any idea how I go about doing that? I suspect that your hard drive is worn out or has too many bad tracks. HP drives like the 9133 spare some tracks for use by the controller and also spare at least one sector per track for use should any sector on a given track go bad. If the spare sectors and tracks get used up and any more sectors go bad, then the drive controller sends a "media wear" or "media fail" error signal to the host controller. Your computer's OS may not be specific about the type of error it received during format. There's no way to get around sparing, et cetera as it's part of the controller firmware. Low-level formatting is handled by the drive controller as part of the formatting procedure and there is no way to do it yourself-not even if you put it on another PC. The controller does the low-level format, the high level format, writes worst-case data to all tracks then sets up spares and marks bad sectors and tracks. Because of this, you don't need to enter bad sector or media defect info like you would have to with IBM PCompatibles. It handles all this by itself. Two suggestions: a) buy a new hard disk and install it in your 9133. (Not hard to do provided that you work carefully.) Look for one with no defects listed on it or you may have a problem with it sooner than you would care for. A 20Mb disk would work just fine, even though the capacity would still be limited to 15Mb. b) Take your drive to an repair shop that does HP stuff and have them run it on the Amigo (are "D's" Amigo?) excerciser to see what's happening and why. jd onymouse@netcom.UUCP netcom!onymouse@apple.com
rjn@hpfcso.HP.COM (Bob Niland) (01/10/91)
re: > b) Take your drive to an repair shop that does HP stuff and have them > run it on the Amigo (are "D's" Amigo?) excerciser to see what's > happening and why. Nope, they're SS/80. Another common problem with the Seagate mechs used in the 9133 series is "stiction". As they age, they experience increasing difficulty in spinning up. I have a 9133L that requires either multiple cycles of the power switch, or physically picking up the drive and giving it a sharp rotation in order to get it unstuck. Regards, Hewlett-Packard Bob Niland Internet: rjn@hpfcrjn.FC.HP.COM 3404 East Harmony Road UUCP: [hplabs|hpfcse]!hpfcrjn!rjn Ft Collins CO 80525-9599 This response does not represent the official position of, or statement by, the Hewlett-Packard Company. The above data is provided for informational purposes only. It is supplied without warranty of any kind.
onymouse@netcom.UUCP (John Debert) (01/13/91)
From article <7370275@hpfcso.HP.COM>, by rjn@hpfcso.HP.COM (Bob Niland): > Another common problem with the Seagate mechs used in the 9133 series is > "stiction". As they age, they experience increasing difficulty in spinning > up. I have a 9133L that requires either multiple cycles of the power > switch, or physically picking up the drive and giving it a sharp rotation in > order to get it unstuck. They also are subject to bearing failure - at least the 10Mb ST-416 is. Have had three in a row fail. Costs at least $75.00 each to repair them. jd onymouse@netcom.UUCP netcom!onymouse@apple.com