IBM System/34 disk squeal?

From: Richard W. Schauer <rws_at_enteract.com>
Date: Thu Sep 30 21:04:26 1999

Hi- I fired up my System/34 tonight for the first time since it was
retired in '95. Everything seemed to come up OK, except the 4 model 62PC
disk drives started squealing as soon as they were powered on. It was
deafening for about 10 seconds and gradually went away in about a minute.
It came back a couple of times softly during the 10 minutes I ran them.
While I fired up I was listening for ting-ting-ting of HDI and all I could
hear is this squeal. I was also shining a light over the disk surface
(clear HDA's are great- why aren't all disks this way?) on one of the
drives and I didn't see any scratches forming, nor did I see them after
powering off. The head actuators were unlocked (I've always moved the
machine with them locked, but they were never locked at the company I got
them from).

Any ideas what might have caused this? My best guess was the spindle
motor brakes, but it's impossible to tell with my head in a box full of
squealing drives. Is is safe to run like this? I haven't moved the heads
yet, but they seemed to quiet down after running for a while.

Thanks,
Richard
Received on Thu Sep 30 1999 - 21:04:26 BST