Reviving old hard drives

From: Paul A. Pennington <paulpenn_at_knology.net>
Date: Wed Dec 29 21:51:22 2004

    Bob;

> Specifically, I have a Seagate ST3390N in a Mac Iici that appeard not to
> spin-up anymore.

    Please don't beat on the drive! The heads on these old-timers would
sometimes stick to the platters and not spin up. You can usually break them
loose without damage if you know what you're doing. This is a little hard
to describe so bear with me.

    You need to remove the drive from the computer. Hold it with your hand
on the bottom next to the circuit board. Rotate the drive quickly by
twisting your wrist, stopping short at the end of your range of motion. In
other words, get both the platters and the drive rotating, and then stop the
drive suddenly. You can usually hear the platter rotating for a second or
two after the stop if you are successful.

    Replace the drive and see if it works. Be prepared to make a backup of
the drive before you turn it off again -- that may be the last time it
works. Once they start doing this, things only get worse.

    Paul Pennington
    Augusta, Georgia
Received on Wed Dec 29 2004 - 21:51:22 GMT