zama@ellis.uchicago.edu (iftikhar uz zaman) (09/28/90)
I recently acquired a Blue Chip XT which has a really neat compact design...
Unfortunately, the way this is achieved is that there are two 5.25" drive
bays up front, and directly behind them is the power supply. The power
supply is covered by a removable plate and, if one wants to, there is just
enough space to mount a 3.5" hard drive right there. The manual recommends
that if one wants to install a hard drive one can do it there.
Well, here's the problem. I mounted an ST-138R at the recommended spot,
but I keep getting intermittent "Disk boot failiures." By simply lifting
the drive up and away a slight or a greater distance, I can ALWAYS get
it to boot. Also, whenever I have actually put the cover back on the XT
(here I mean the case of the CPU unit itself) I get the boot failiure.
The ST-138R is (or was) in excellent shape on the PC I had it on before.
But just to make sure I ran Seagate's Disk Manager and had it generate a
flaw map--after about fifty cylinders with a physical error on every other
track, I aborted and discarded this new "flaw map"; assuming that this must
be due to the problems with the HD being located too near the HD (previously
there had been only two physical errors...). Norton Disk Doctor also detects
numerous bad sectors, where there had been next to none previously...
Now what's happening here? If there was an electrical field from the power
supply shouldn't it wipe out stuff on the hard drive--instead of making it
so that I can lift the hard drive away a bit and things return to normal?
Is it perhaps only the ability to read that is being affected, so that the
drive platter itself is not being affected? Of course, I am assuming that
the problem is the proximity to the power supply--this is a reasonable
assumption, right?
Finally, most important, is there some way I can fix this problem? It
woud be great if someone who had had experience with the Blue Chip could
come up with a "conventional" solution. But, I am thinking along the
lines of reinforcing the cover on the power supply with some material
that would shield the hard drive from any possible electrical field being
generated...Is there such material? And is this a feasible solution?....
Thanks a lot for reading all this, and thanks in advance for any solutions.
I guess the best way to respond to this would probably be e-mail...
Iftikhar.
--
La yajrimannakum shan'anu qawmin `ala an-ta`dilu; i`dilu huwa aqrubu li
al-taqwa...
zama@ellis.uchicago.edu xpszama@uchimvs1.uchicago.edudonm@pnet07.cts.com (Don Maslin) (09/29/90)
If you can find some and if space permits you might try a mu-metal shield
between HD and PS.
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