Reviving old hard drives

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Thu Dec 30 18:36:08 2004

> was enough to save the data. On dismantling the drive I found that the
> grease on the platter spindle had gone rock hard with age - this happened
> to an old full-height drive in my AT too.

One of my other interests (yes, I don't just hack old computers!) is old
cameras, still and cine (movie) ones. Anyway, a few weeks back I got a
Bolex 8mm cine camera, one of the faults of which was that the focussing
mount on the 13mm lens was jammed solid.

And yes it was solid. I could not move it. Anyway, I took off all I could
(aperture ring, focusing ring) and found the grease on the focussing
mount had gone rock-hard. It was green in colour, and I could chip it off
the metal parts with a screwdriver blade. Soaking it in propan-2-ol got
it free enough to come apart with some force, whereupon I could chip off
all the old grease. After regreasing it and putting it all back together
(not forgetting to set the infinity focus point), it worked beautifully
again.

-tony
Received on Thu Dec 30 2004 - 18:36:08 GMT