[comp.sys.mac.hardware] My Seagate hard drive burps!

long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Rich Long) (03/28/90)

Hi,

In early February, I bought an Ehman internal 45MB drive to replace the
original 20MB in my SE.  Because of the way the Ehman bracket and cable is
(shove the drive way to the back, twist the cable on itself, and wedge it in),
it seemed like a good idea to reuse the cable and bracket from the 20MB drive. 
This oriented the drive 180 degrees from the way Ehman's bracket would have
oriented it, which would have been circuit board down, so it now is circuit
board up.  To be safe, I reformatted it in this position.  I don't know if
this is relevant to the problem I'm having, but thought I'd mention it.

Anyway, the problem is that the drive "burps" (that's really what it sounds
like!).  It has a pretty major burp (belch?) every 10 minutes or so, which
lasts from about 1 to 1.5 seconds. Then, there is a MUCH more minor burp about
every five minutes. The drive light does not flash.  The drive has given me
absolutely no problems, but I'm wondering if this is something I should be
concerned about. The drive is a Seagate ST157N (?), manufactured January
1990.

Thanks for any help...

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 /'')  /'~  /   | long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com            | Wish I didn't know now
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Richard C. Long | long%mcntsh.dec@decwrl.enet.dec.com |  then. -- Bob Seger

dgraham@kean.ucs.mun.ca (David Graham) (03/28/90)

In article <9687@shlump.nac.dec.com>, long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Rich
Long) writes: 

> In early February, I bought an Ehman internal 45MB drive to replace the
> original 20MB in my SE.  Because of the way the Ehman bracket and cable is

(stuff deleted)

> Anyway, the problem is that the drive "burps" (that's really what it sounds
> like!).  It has a pretty major burp (belch?) every 10 minutes or so, which
> lasts from about 1 to 1.5 seconds. Then, there is a MUCH more minor burp about
> every five minutes. The drive light does not flash.  The drive has given me

I have an Ehman 80Mb drive which I bought last summer, which also 
displays this symptom. I would describe it as a chatter rather than a 
burp or belch, but it's definitely there. The power supply has failed 
once on the drive, just after Christmas; I don't know whether there's 
any connection. It'd be nice to know what's going on...

> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  /'')  /'~  /   | long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com            | Wish I didn't know now
> /''\  /,,  /,,  | ...!decwrl!mcntsh.enet.dec.com!long |  what I didn't know
> Richard C. Long | long%mcntsh.dec@decwrl.enet.dec.com |  then. -- Bob Seger
-- 
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   David Graham					dgraham@kean.ucs.mun.ca  
   Department of French & Spanish		{...}munucs!dgraham
   Memorial University of Newfoundland		(709)737-7636/7 (Voice)
   St John's, NF				(709)737-4000	(Fax)
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pdel@zodiac.ADS.COM (Peter Delevoryas) (03/29/90)

 the problem is that the drive "burps" (that's really what it sounds
>like!).  It has a pretty major burp (belch?) every 10 minutes or so, which
>lasts from about 1 to 1.5 seconds. Then, there is a MUCH more minor burp about
>every five minutes. The drive light does not flash.  The drive has given me
>absolutely no problems, but I'm wondering if this is something I should be
>concerned about. The drive is a Seagate ST157N (?), manufactured January
>1990.


I just got an ST157N also;it replaces the 32mb Seagate which I fried recently;
both of these guys "burped"(the minor kind). I haven't noticed that this caused
me any problems, though, either.

Peter D.

hgw@julia.math.ucla.edu (Harold Wong) (03/29/90)

In article <9687@shlump.nac.dec.com> long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Rich Long) writes:
>
>Hi,
>
>Anyway, the problem is that the drive "burps" (that's really what it sounds
>like!).  It has a pretty major burp (belch?) every 10 minutes or so, which
>lasts from about 1 to 1.5 seconds. Then, there is a MUCH more minor burp about
>every five minutes. The drive light does not flash.  The drive has given me
>absolutely no problems, but I'm wondering if this is something I should be
>concerned about. The drive is a Seagate ST157N (?), manufactured January
>1990.
>
>Thanks for any help...
>

That's funny.  My drive burbs too but for over 20 seconds.  It
does it once in a long while.  The drive is a Seagate St-277N 
packaged by CMS as a 30MB drive.

This is actually a long story but the drive was acting up (loosing data/
format etc) during this time it was burping.  It turns out the fan had
stopped blowing and it was probably overheating.  I fixed the fan and
now EVERYTHING is normal.  Even the burps are gone.  Was this related?
I don't know.  All I know is that I saved lots of $$.

Harold