Reviving old hard drives

From: Joe R. <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Mon Jan 3 12:17:26 2005

At 08:48 AM 1/3/05 -0800, you wrote:
>
>>From: "Barry Watzman" <Watzman_at_neo.rr.com>
>---snip---
>>
>>SOMETIMES, the problem is that the lubricant used on the platter surface
>>has, over time, effectively "glued" the heads to the platter, a problem
>>called "stiction".
>>
>
>Hi
> Actually the surfaces have no lubrication at
>all. I had a couple of friends that worked at Seagate
>during the stiction problems. It was caused by the surfaces
>being too smooth. When the platter stopped rotating,
>the air would be squeezed out from between the two
>and they would become stuck together. They solved the
>problem on later drives by making the platters surface
>have a specific amount of roughness.
> Machinist that work with gauge blocks understand the
>stiction issue. When stacking the blocks they become
>stuck together and they have to be forced apart.

  Well you're partially correct. The blocks that you're referring to are
calling gauge (or gage) blocks or Jhohassen blocks (not sure of the exact
spelling). But they don't have to be "forced" apart, merely slid apart.
It's difficult to pull them away from each other but they slide apart
easily. If the drive problem is due to the same thing then the heads should
slide (or rotate) just as easily. I've looked at a couple of drive platters
that had sticktion problems and there definitely seems to be wax or
something holding the heads to the platters.

   Joe
Received on Mon Jan 03 2005 - 12:17:26 GMT