boz@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (John Boswell) (10/27/89)
Hi. My ~2 year old Rodime 20-plus harddisk has died. Basically, somewhere between my old and new apartments, some space aliens came and killed it. After the move, I simply re-attached it to my MacPlus, and tried to boot. Nuffin. The fan starts, but the platter doesn't seem to start to spin. I brought it to my local Rodime dealer, but all he could do was send it to Rodime. Now, Rodime said it would cost $300-400 to fix (at least my dealer said Rodime in- formed him of this) depending on whether it was an electronic or mechanical problem. Well, I can get a NEW 30-meg drive (not Rodime) on campus for ~500, so I didn't send it to Rodime. Now I have a very expensive doorstop. Anybody have any clues as to what could have gone wrong? I typically left the drive on constantly before the move...so I never really had to turn in on/off. I did *not* drop it or any such thing during the move. I've tried many cycles of on/off with the switch trying to get the drive platter to start to spin, but to no avail. I've also turne the drive on its side and tried. Finally, I've also tried slight raps on the box when turning on to try to jar something looose. Needless to say, I'm not going to send it to Rodime for $400; but I'd *really* like to do something with it other than prop up my coffee table. I *did* do a full backup of the disk before the move; but that does me little good when the harddisk is dead! Thanks for any help... -- ************************************************************************* John Boswell boz@eleazar.dartmouth.edu Dept. of Chemistry boz@dartCMS1.BITNET Dartmouth College, Hangover, Nude Hampster 03755
steveg@tove.umd.edu (Steve Green) (10/27/89)
In article <16379@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> boz@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (John Boswell) writes: >Hi. > My ~2 year old Rodime 20-plus harddisk has died. Basically, somewhere >between my old and new apartments, some space aliens came and killed it. After >the move, I simply re-attached it to my MacPlus, and tried to boot. Nuffin. >The fan starts, but the platter doesn't seem to start to spin. I brought it [stuff deleted] Ah yes, this was very common for a while with the rodime drives. If the platters are only stuck, which is what it sounds like, then all you have to do it take the mechanism out of the case, and give the flywheel a nudge. Get a long thin screwdriver, and look between the mech. and the PCB. You should see the large chrome colored wheel. Just give it a slight turn. This is/was a common problem with the 3.5 inch seagates also. -- -steveg@tove.umd.edu ..uunet!tove.umd.edu!steveg "Ignore the message: 'ld warning: file /tmp/kernAAAa06386 has no relocation information' if it appears."
ear@wpi.wpi.edu (Eric A Rasmussen) (10/28/89)
At the last place I worked, one of the computers had a Seagate HD that had to be left on all the time or it would stop working. The problem is that if you left it turned off for more than 1/4 of an hour, it would not spin up. I (being the super genius that I am) did manage to discover how to get it to spin again, though. Being very careful not to shake the drive up and down, which could potentially cause a head crash, you must remove the hard drive, hold the drive level and attempt to spin the case around the platters, thus breaking them free so they will be able to spin. The idea is that the mass of the platters will be enough to hold them still (through momentum) as you spin the case around them. Obviously, you must do this in quick short motions. After a few tries by several people, this worked with our drive, and, after being reinstalled, it worked perfectly, and we didn't even lose any data.
eaw@Alliant.COM (Eric Woudenberg) (11/01/89)
In an article boz@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (John Boswell) writes: > My ~2 year old Rodime 20-plus harddisk has died. ... > ... the platter doesn't seem to start to spin. I had this happen to me after my disk [not a Rodime] had been turned off for 5 days. I ended up using a pair of needle nose pliers to turn the drive spindle manually about a half revolution (working my way around the static spring). This worked, after which I immediately backed everything up. I haven't had any problems since, but I don't turn it off for more than an hour either. Scary. Eric Woudenberg
delingma@THUNDER.LAKEHEADU.CA (06/27/91)
Hi. I have a dead 40 (or 45 -I'm not sure) Meg Rodime SCSI drive that I sort of inherited. Various SCSI tools are able to talk to it, so the controller board is good, but the drive refuses to spin up. Using a hair drier :-) to heat it up a bit first, I can get it to spin, but nothing I have will let me format it etc etc. Any suggestions as to what might be wrong? Is is worth getting this drive fixed? Where could I do so? and if I decide to trade it in on a new drive who would you suggest? (If I can make it work it is going to replace my dying HD20 I have) Thanks in advance. Dan Lingman delingma@thunder.lakeheadu.ca