HP7900A drive

From: Jay West <jlwest_at_tseinc.com>
Date: Thu Jun 17 21:21:28 1999

Ugggg....

In my rush to spin up the drive, I had neglected to inspect the bottom heads
for the fixed platter. They are, after all, almost hidden in the bottom. :[

This time I removed the bottom of the drive and looked underneath. There are
the obvious telltale streaks on the bottom surface of the bottom (fixed)
platter; it doesn't look gouged, but streaked nontheless. The bottom heads
(which can only really be inspected from the bottom of the drive with the
bottom cover off) don't look to be very happy. Definite oxide residue, but
the heads at least LOOK structurally sound.

Since the bottom fixed platter doesn't have servo data on it, I'm hoping a
new bottom platter won't cost much more than a removable platter. Then I'm
hoping that since the noise was never that pronounced that perhaps the heads
will be OK after thorough cleaning. Don't know much about this - is that
possible? I know, I'm probably hoping unrealistically.

This pretty well trashes my hopes for TSB, at least until I can fix it or
find another 7900A. On the bright side, it's pretty obvious that this damage
was done before I got the drive. Small consolation ;)

Jay West
Received on Thu Jun 17 1999 - 21:21:28 BST