danek@gdc.portal.com (06/25/91)
I've been reading many help requests about crashed hard drives over the last few weeks and wish to share an experience that may (or may not) help some desperate data seekers. I have a clone AT with an ST-225 drive. Upon exiting from a long edit session my hard drive "hung" (the drive light was on with the disk spinning endlessly). Needless to say, I forcefully reminded myself about frequent backup's and periodically saving one's work as I re-booted the computer. Much to my suprise the drive did not boot! The drive just made a klunking noise about every 10 seconds. Booting off a floppy and accessing the drive didn't help either. I frantically tried all the utilites I could get my hands on to access the drive. Nothing worked. After about a week of calling drive repair places, I decided upon a local house. Being the destructive type, I decided to do what everyone says NOT to even think about...open the drive. I figured I at worst, I could see what makes the drives tick. After removing the screws, cover and seal, I found the platter and the head staring me in the face. I moved the head back and forth a few times to watch the movement, then put the drive back together. I decided to power the unit up as a last good-by and...you guessed it... the dirve booted!!! Not only that, but all the data that wasn't on track 0 (wiped out when I tried a low level format) was recovered (and backed up)...That was about 6 months ago and the drive has been working fine ever since. All my disk tests say the drive is just fine....until the next crash!!! Remember...this is just a personal experience...never try this at home...unless you have nothin to lose!! Good luck. Bob
zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Ross Alford) (06/26/91)
In <16731@gdc.portal.com> danek@gdc.portal.com writes: >I've been reading many help requests about crashed hard drives over the >last few weeks and wish to share an experience that may (or may not) help >some desperate data seekers. > ... >After about a week of calling drive repair places, I decided upon a local >house. Being the destructive type, I decided to do what everyone says NOT to >even think about...open the drive. I figured I at worst, I could see what makes >the drives tick. After removing the screws, cover and seal, I found the platter >and the head staring me in the face. I moved the head back and forth a few >times to watch the movement, then put the drive back together. >I decided to power the unit up as a last good-by and...you guessed it... the >dirve booted!!! Not only that, but all the data that wasn't on track 0 (wiped >out when I tried a low level format) was recovered (and backed up)...That was >about 6 months ago and the drive has been working fine ever since. All my >disk tests say the drive is just fine....until the next crash!!! >Remember...this is just a personal experience...never try this at home...unless >you have nothin to lose!! I have a ST225, bought in September 1986. In about March 1989 I opened up the computer for some reason and discovered that, and I am not joking here, some small ants had eaten through the filter on the top of the case and were wandering in and out. I immediately secured a new layer of filter paper over the top of the little thingy that has the filter in it. The drive is still working. I don't know where the ants were going after they disappeared into the casing, but I assume they were at least slightly violating the "clean-room" integrity of the drive. Perhaps they always got flung off the platters before the heads extended at startup? Just goes to show that you can *sometimes* get lucky. Ross -- Ross A. Alford Department of Zoology Internet: zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au James Cook University Phone: +61 77 81 4732 Townsville, Qld 4811 Australia
feg@floyd.ATT.COM (Forrest Gehrke,2C-119,7239,ATTBL) (06/27/91)
In article <1991Jun26.061359.28370@marlin.jcu.edu.au> zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Ross Alford) writes: > >I have a ST225, bought in September 1986. In about March 1989 I opened >up the computer for some reason and discovered that, and I am not joking >here, some small ants had eaten through the filter on the top of the >case and were wandering in and out. I immediately secured a new layer >of filter paper over the top of the little thingy that has the filter in >it. The drive is still working. I don't know where the ants were going >after they disappeared into the casing, but I assume they were at least >slightly violating the "clean-room" integrity of the drive. Perhaps >they always got flung off the platters before the heads extended at >startup? Just goes to show that you can *sometimes* get lucky. >Ross A. Alford >Department of Zoology Internet: zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au >James Cook University Phone: +61 77 81 4732 >Townsville, Qld 4811 Australia Your report, coming from the Department of Zoology, at least has a credible address. Your field wouldn't be entomology, would it? (;-)) Forrest Gehrke feg@dodger.att.com
jorgense@irisa.fr (Finn Jorgensen) (06/27/91)
One more horror story about repairing hard drives : An original IBM-AT drive in our lab started making noises like ... (well, very loud and nasty noises). It still worked, but finally refused to spin. Evidently, something inside touched the platters. We telephoned IBM to ask for an exchange. At that time the price was around $ 1600 for this 20 Mb drive. Another vendor sold similar drives for $ 1000 - 1200, so we decided to scrap the old one and buy a new. Before throwing it into the garbage can, curiosity pushed us to open it up, just to understand what went wrong. In fact, the air filter, round and about the size of a platter, was attached to the drive cover using some kind of double-sided tape, and it got loose and dropped on the top platter. Both the filter and the top platter were severly marked, but we noticed that there was no head over the top surface, so we blew away the large quantities of black dust that had accumulated inside the drive, using a compressor, fixed the filter by drilling two holes through the cover and the filter and screwing the wole thing together and put the cover back. To our surprise, everything worked perfectly, not a single bit got lost, and the drive worked flawlessly for over a year. It finally gave up, but for another reason (power surge). I won't recommend using this technique, but as a last resort, why not ? Finn Jorgensen
danek@gdc.portal.com (06/28/91)
> In article <1991Jun26.061359.28370@marlin.jcu.edu.au>, > zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Ross Alford) writes: >> >> I have a ST225, bought in September 1986. In about March 1989 I opened >> up the computer for some reason and discovered that, and I am not joking >> here, some small ants had eaten through the filter on the top of the >> case and were wandering in and out. I immediately secured a new layer >> of filter paper over the top of the little thingy that has the filter in >> it. The drive is still working. I don't know where the ants were going >> after they disappeared into the casing, but I assume they were at least >> slightly violating the "clean-room" integrity of the drive. Perhaps >> they always got flung off the platters before the heads extended at >> startup? Just goes to show that you can *sometimes* get lucky. >> > (OOP's, sorry about the previous posting...I must be getting too old for this.) Posing a software-hardware engineer for about 8 years has given me the chance to create some very interesting problems in micro systems but I have only heard second hand of this very rare phenomenon which you describe...it seems that as the fine line dividing software and hardware becomes blurred as in the area around the head-to-surface interface on your hard drive, it is possible for, what are normally ordinary hardware bugs, to be magically transformed into obscure software bugs for no reasons known to modern day engineering. That is probably what has happened in your case. Hopefully the bugs have not infested any of your important programs.:) Bob
harbour@vf.jsc.nasa.gov (06/29/91)
In article <16731@gdc.portal.com>, danek@gdc.portal.com writes: > > > I've been reading many help requests about crashed hard drives over the > last few weeks and wish to share an experience that may (or may not) help > some desperate data seekers. > > (stuff deleted) > > After about a week of calling drive repair places, I decided upon a local > house. Being the destructive type, I decided to do what everyone says NOT to > even think about...open the drive. I figured I at worst, I could see what makes > the drives tick. After removing the screws, cover and seal, I found the platter > and the head staring me in the face. I moved the head back and forth a few > times to watch the movement, then put the drive back together. > > I decided to power the unit up as a last good-by and...you guessed it... the > dirve booted!!! Not only that, but all the data that wasn't on track 0 (wiped > out when I tried a low level format) was recovered (and backed up)...That was > about 6 months ago and the drive has been working fine ever since. All my > disk tests say the drive is just fine....until the next crash!!! > My ST-125 (20MB 3.5") failed with the classic "stiction" problem and I, too, decided to "open 'er up and take a look-see". Sure enough, the heads were sticking to the platter. Is there something that can be applied to the platters to free things up? And from the idle curiosity standpoint: Why is the head sticking in the first place? Is there some kind of low friction coating (teflon maybe?) on the platter that has failed? > Remember...this is just a personal experience...never try this at home...unless > you have nothin to lose!! This is absolutely true! My drive is now a paper weight because I rotated the spindle backwards. One of the heads stuck so hard that the support arm buckled right next to the head. I guess the arms are designed for tension, not compression :-). > Good luck. > > Bob ditto. -- Jeff : harbour@vf.jsc.nasa.gov : .sig void where prohibited by law