Cranking up a HP 7914.

From: jim <jwstephens_at_cox.net>
Date: Thu Apr 17 18:59:00 2003

check out how to clean the ways. I am assuming that this is a single platter type
top or front load with a 2.5 5 or 10 meg capacity.

If you can get the schematics, or do some tracing, one thing that most of these will do is
spin up w/o moving the heads. You can get this to happen by either physically pulling
a driver connector, or setting a switch to be sure the heads don't get energized.

I would get the drive to be able to spin up first w/o head load and be sure that it
is happy (finding a test manual would help a whole lot here).

Then be sure you get the media you plan to use cleaned. If you have a fixed disk,
you probably have a bigger problem than if you have removable, since you can
get in and clean the cartridge media and inspect it much easier than a fixed platter
in a drive.

Use lint free cleaning swabs and isopropyl alcohol for cleaning. I doubt there
are any media houses left in existance, but if there are, you could send the media
to them for a clean job and inspection.

Clean the heads off and inspect them as well before any power up.

Then all you need is luck and a quick hand on the power if you crash. these
drives can survive a crash with some luck if you are quick enough and don't fry
the head. Of course the media will be lost, but that is better than the whole
unit.

Jim

Joe wrote:

> At the urging on one of the other local collectors and against my better judgement, I went back and picked up the HP 7914 disk drive that was part of the HP 1000 system that I recently acquired. I think this is going to be a waste of time since I've never found one of these old drives that still worked. But I'm going to try this one and see what happens. Anyone have any suggestions about anything that I should check or do before I try to spin this drive up?
>
> Joe
Received on Thu Apr 17 2003 - 18:59:00 BST