OT: Maxtor drive goes under

From: Marvin Johnston <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Thu Jan 16 00:45:24 2003

There are several things I try in such situation. I will rarely tap a
drive except as a last resort.

The first thing I do is remove it from the equipment :), and give it a
*fast* twist. The idea is to use the momentum of the disk to hold it
still while the case rotates around it. If that doesn't work, I will try
putting it in a freezer bag (to try and reduce condensation) and put it
in the refridgerator for a while, and then try it. If the data is
*really* important, at that point I would send it to a data recovery
service. If you have given up at that point, I would remove the cover
(in a preferrably a smoke/dust mostly free environment), check it out,
and assuming it hasn't crashed, give it a manual turn with power on. If
it hasn't crashed, one of the problems might be in the flex circuit
connecting the head flexures to the HD body, and you might take a
careful look at that (although I think it is unlikely you would be able
to spot the fracture/break in the circuit.) Each time I powered up the
unit, I would have *everything* set up to try and copy whatever data you
feel is important as fast as possible. YMMV and Good luck!

Cameron Kaiser wrote:
>
> I believe Sellam was cursing at a Maxtor drive a couple months back, and
> now I know why.
>
> The 60GB ATA/133 DiamondStar in my Power Mac 7300 (connected through a Sonnet
> Tempo Trio) this evening made several hiccup-like noises and the computer
> froze up. On the next power cycle, it didn't spin up and just sat there and
> clicked. I suspected stiction (well, I prayed it was stiction) and tried
> reorienting it and a few gentle taps. On the next power cycle, it didn't even
> click anymore and made occasional soft grinding noises, and now it doesn't
> even do that.
>
> So, I'm typing this on my Power Book 1400, which I guess will be my desktop
> system for the time being.
>
> Any suggestions for ways to get it to spin up, one last time? Anyone know
> what happened? I thought it had been a power problem because it made some
> sounds like this a few weeks ago and replacing the power cable did seem to
> cure it, but I'm mystified as to why it would die so fast. The drive was not
> especially hot and it has plenty of ventilation.
>
> I guarantee you my next drive will not be a Maxtor.
>
> Sorry for the OT -- just looking for any desperation suggestions before I
> make a new hard drive platter wall clock.
>
> --
> ----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
> Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser_at_stockholm.ptloma.edu
> -- Son, God's going to use you. Until He does, take this pill. -- Mark Lowry --
Received on Thu Jan 16 2003 - 00:45:24 GMT

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