chowe@bbn.com (Carl Howe) (01/04/91)
Hi all, I've recently started hearing a very irritating noise out of my Apple 40 MByte hard drive in my vintage 1987 Mac II. It correlates with the spinning of the disk (i.e., you can still hear it after the fans go off, but you can't hear it once the drive spins down past a certain RPM). I suspect that it is caused by the anti-static wiper on the spindle; it has the right kind of sound (a high-pitched continuous squeal). It also sounds like other larger drives I've worked on with that type of problem. I can guarantee that it is the drive that is causing the problem, since the noise does not occur when I turn on the system with the drive power disconnected. Now the real question: can one disassemble the drive enough to tweak or replace the static discharge strap without violating the sealed disk compartment? I removed the drive (bracket and all) from its mounting last night and examined it by eye, and it looks to me like one could remove the bracket and circuit board without bothering the drive itself. Presumably one would find the antistatic strap beneath the board. However, before I actually tried it, I thought I would see if anyone else has gone through this procedure. Note that this is a regular 1/2-height 5.25 in Quantum drive, and therefore is not subject to the "stiction" problem. Also, all my data is backed up so if something is really terribly wrong, I just need to get a new drive. Carl