matth@progress.COM (Matthew J. Harper) (05/28/91)
I have seen quite a few postings of late discussing "sticking" heads and
platters in some Seagate hard drives. The models mentiones most often are
ST251 and ST250R.
My questions are:
1) How many people have actually suffered from this?
2) What's the frequency of the problem with drives from other vendors?
3) How old are the drives in question?
4) Do the drives in question go through long periods (read many days / weeks)
that the machine/drive does not get used or powered up?
I ask this because I have an St251 that is about to pass it's fourth
birthday. I have never had a problem that I didn't cause (loose cable...)
My machine rarely goes more than two days without being used. The only
exceptions to this are when I go on vacation. Sad to say, this does not happen
often enough for my liking!
I'm sure others would like to know as well. I will take it upon myself to
accept e-mail from people with answers to these questions. Send me brief
answers please, like:
1) I have had no problems
2) No clue
3) 4 years old
4) Used every one to two days.
Thanks in advance to all who participate.
Matth
--
Matthew J. Harper UUCP: mit-eddie!progress!matth
Progress Software Corp. Internet: matth@progress.com
5 Oak Park Disclaimer: My words & ideas, That's all.
Bedford, MA 01730tmkk@uiuc.edu (K. Khan) (05/29/91)
1) I have had no problems 2) No clue 3) one is 2 years old, the other is about 3 months old (both ST251-1s) 4) Used every one to two days. Note: According to the trade press, Seagate went through Quality Control Hell a couple of years back; the failure rates on practically all their drives was incredibly high for some reason. If yours if 4 years old, you might have gotten one BEFORE the trouble started; mine were both purchased AFTER the trouble had been taken care of. In any case, you're likely to get more "bad" reports on drives produced during the time period in between.
KOSINSK@gecrdvm1.crd.ge.com (05/29/91)
We see sticky drives in this shop all the time. I don't keep records but a guess at 25% of all hd failureis sticky drives. ALL makes and models do this Seagate is not the only one. We replace the drive at the first sign of this problem.
gordon@news.colorado.edu (GORDON ALLEN R) (05/29/91)
I have a 20MEG drive that came with my AT and is about 4 years old. I don't know the manufacturer, but it is a half height drive. I suffered from a pro- blem which I assume is stiction, in that upon power up, I would get a drive error, with the light on the drive flashing wildly. I solved this problem not by sending it in for repair but by parking the heads prior to powering down the system. To date, it has never failed to start properly when I remember to park the heads, but will fail when I don't. When it does fail, it is because the platter is not turning. I then have to turn the system off, and rotate the drive with a pencil point and then power it back up. There is a space in the PC board to reach in and manually rotate the drive. It doesn't need to be opened up. -- Allen Gordon University of Colorado, Boulder gordon@tramp.colorado.edu gordon_A@cubldr.colorado.edu