ssd@sugar.hackercorp.com (Scott Denham) (06/01/90)
Some time back there was a lot of discussion of the tendency for certain
Seagate drives to develop "stiction" or refuse to spin up at power on
without a gentle "nudge" on the spindle. I read this with some interest
but no real need. Now I find myself in posession of no less than two of
such beasts, a 277N and a 157N. Both exhibit similar symptoms; the
tendency to refuse to spin up "cold" started out as an intermittent
problem and gradualy got worse, to the point where one can almost be
certain that after 10 minutes or more of power down, the drives will
sit there stupidly on the next application of power unless a slight
rotation is applied to the spindle first. Other than this, both drives
seem to be working fine. In the case of the 277N, it's a small bother,
as the drive is on a BBS that never gets shut off anyway - the net result
is just that a power outage of 5 minutes or more results in the BBS being
down until the next time I check it. The smaller drive is a bit more of
a concern, as I'd like to set it up on a system my wife uses and she's
neither willing or able to apply the correct nudge to get the thing
going again. Personal finances rule out the possibility of a complete
rebuild at this time, but has anyone had any success in getting this
problem fixed at a simpler level?? Further, given that the prices for
rebuilds seem to be something over half the price of a new drive, is it
worth having one of these drives reworked or is one better off going for
a new, more reliable unit? Any experiences that could be shared would
be appreciated.....
Scott Denham
ssd@sugar.hackercorp.com