hard drive advice requested

From: Ron Hudson <rhudson_at_cnonline.net>
Date: Mon Sep 29 21:30:51 2003

> It's rare for the aluminium disk to get seriously cut up. The oxide is
> scraped off, the aluminium is scored, and the head gets some lovely
> grooves in the surface, but you don't get loads of stuff thrown all
> over
> the inside of the drive. At least not normally.
>
> -tony
>

On one fine saturday at work [I went in on saturdays and had the VAX
11/780 all
to myself :^) ] in the late what 70's, I was down in my cubicle writing
DCL toys
and playing empire, when suddenly the system slowed drastically (froze
even) and
started saying things something line "uh, I think the disk is offline".

I got up and walked quickly to the computer room (raised floor and all)
to find
a brownish haze floating in the air and the system drive on the 11/780
making
a serious scraping sound.

I shut everything down and called my Boss at home...

Later I found out that one of the heads in the middle of the pack had
turned
sideways, spreading those two platters apart, disturbing other heads...

The haze in the air was ejected magnetic coating.
Received on Mon Sep 29 2003 - 21:30:51 BST