huebner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Robert E. Huebner) (02/08/91)
THis thread came up well over 6 months ago on the amiga groups, but those were my pre-hard-drive-days and now it has become an issue: What is the besy way of dealing with Seagate (non-Quantum) drives that sieze up and refuse to beginning spinning when you turn them on? I started having this problem after I got in the habbit of parking the drive heads whenever I shut down (and I got into that habbit after a crash landing ruined some blocks). Which is the lesser of two evils: parking and siezing, or causing read/write errors? Or perhaps there is no connection between parking heads and lockups. It could be that the drive just decayed over time. Anyone that followed that thread please post a synopsis. I think it would be valuable for c.s.a.intro since it seems everyone is adding hard drives as of late. -- | Robert E. Huebner | "Death is nature's way of telling | | huebner@en.ecn.purdue.edu | you to slow down" | | huebner@aerospace.aero.org | - Unknown Author |
akk@trantor.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Andy Klingler) (02/09/91)
In article <1991Feb7.180127.14970@en.ecn.purdue.edu>, Robert E. Huebner writes: > What is the besy way of dealing with Seagate (non-Quantum) drives that > sieze up and refuse to beginning spinning when you turn them on? Well, the best way is to throw it out of the window and never buy a Seagate drive again. The second best thing: never switch your computer off (that`s what I do). But since you already have the problem here is one of the old postings: (Disclaimer: I never had to try this (knock on wood), so I don`t know how well this works) /-------------------------------------------------------------/ Subject: Re: Seagate fails on powerup Message-ID: <3923@tmiuv0.uucp> Date: 3 Aug 90 11:30:36 GMT References: <1990Jul30.153310.7818@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> Organization: Technology Marketing Inc., Irvine, CA [...] Well, I bought some wooden-stick Q-Tips and cut one of the "puffs" off. I used that raw piece of wood to stick between the circuit card and the HDA (head-disk assembly) to spin the flywheel for the platter to the left (with the PCB on top). If you look between the PCB and HDA, you should see the edge of a silver disk. That's the flywheel. Use some sort of skinny object (the Q-Tip is perfect) to rotate that thing to the left if the PCB is on top. It'll break free. You can then apply power to the drive (you don't have to have the controller hooked up) to verify you've freed the thing. Alternately, you can unscrew the PCB, flip it back (be CAREFUL) and spin the flywheel clockwise by hand. Make sure that you rebend the static grounding strap back so it's in contact with the spindle. The pliers will work, but use needle nosed ones and put a layer of electrical tape on each of the jaws so you don't score the spindle. Another way of doing it is to get a pencil with an eraser. Put the pencil (eraser end down) on top of the spindle (so that the pencil becomes an extension of the spindle) and twist the pencil. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [- O] Rick Stevens ? EMail: uunet!zardoz!tmiuv0!rick -or- uunet!zardoz!xyclone!sysop V CIS: 75006,1355 (75006.1355@compuserve.com from Internet) "Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle science fiction." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Andreas Klingler akk@trantor.informatik.uni-erlangen.de If you have enough patience, everything can be simulated Marvin Minsky
ralph@atrp.mit.edu (Ralph L. Vinciguerra) (02/12/91)
I have a seagate 157N in my Amiga and it routinely seizes if I power down. As a result I never shut my machine down. However if the power goes out or I suspect it will I end up doing the following to get it spun up: (Don't do this unless you know what you are doing and are very brave) Take the covers off. Leave the drive with it's power, but remove the control cable. Remove the grounding brush on the spindle top by unsoldering it. With everything checked for shorts and other metal to metal contact,power up. Using a good pair of needle nose pliers, gently turn the spindle. Now that it's working, shut down and re-assemble. (I leave the grounding brush off) (Now pray) For me, that one hand spin makes the next poweru-p successful at restarting the drive. Gee, I ought to install a hand crank on the front panel. Stupid Seagate drive. I wish they would address the problem and offer a fix....