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I killed it

Trixter said:
Here's the tragedy for today: http://trixter.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/even-experts-make-mistakes/
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It's probably just stiction. That has happened to me even on much newer EIDE drives. Usually you can get it going again by shaking the drive around when you first apply power, to try to get the platters unstuck.

If that fails and your only intent is to get the drive running just long enough to rescue the data on it, you can actually open up the hard drive's case and turn the spindle by hand when powering it up, to give it a "push." Old stepper-motor hard drives will run for quite a while with the case open before dust on the platters will start causing read errors -- even days or weeks, if you keep it in a reasonably clean environment. And of course while you have it open, you can lubricate the motor, as the original lubrication has probably long since dried up.
 
The UPS had failed, but power was distributed from elsewhere in the building to keep both the servers and the 6300 going? Does a UPS work in such way that it will deliver power to anything attached to it (the 6300) even if the batteries no longer will charge, or however it works? Otherwise if the old UPS had been out of power for a while it seems to me the AT&T PC should also have shut down at the same time if that was its main power source.
 
Interesting experience.

Until recently I had an old PII in my office which doubled as a printer server and my personal on-line archive store. It had been humming in the corner almost continuously for 8 years. I say "almost" as it did tend to get powered off for a short time now and again.

However, when I got it replaced just recently, the technician speculated that it might not power up again after switching off. I guess he was aware of this "problem". Personally, I didn't think 8 years was that long. It's certainly a long way from 20 years!

Incidently, I calculate that machine had the effect of warming my small office by at least 2 degrees C. Good for the winter months...not so good in summer. It's replacement machine is switched off at the moment as everyone is being encouraged to save power. It's been so dry in New Zealand our hydro lakes are way lower than they should be and we have a looming winter power crisis...but that's another story...

Tez
 
Usually it's the power supply that fails when an electronic device that was in continuous use for years is powered off and then on again. The electrolytic capacitors in the power supply dry out over time and when newly presented with the surge of power at turn-on they just short out and (hopefully) blow the PS's fuse. In the radio industry, "recapping" (replacing the capacitors) is a normal routine for devices which were in use for more than 15 years or so. There are some early warning signs: as the capacitors age, they can no longer properly filter the incoming AC power into smooth DC, resulting in a background hum in audio, a shaky image on a CRT, or unexplained crashes of a CPU.
 
I have one IBM P70 that does the stiction thing all the time when I let it set for a few months. I take the cover off, unplug the drive cables, pull the drive. I take an old slick magazine, set the magazine on the floor, put the drive on top of the magazine, and spin the entire drive with some wrist action. I do that like 3 or 4 times. Put it all back together, and, voila, it spins up again. I goof around with it for a few hours, turn it off, and get to repeat the whole thing in a few months when I try to use it again.
 
Ah, who hasn't done that...

Seagates were the worst in my experience; fortunately you could also access the end of the drive spindle with a screwdriver or needlenoses, especially after you'd removed that screeching static strap, so you didn't even have to remove the drive.

Standard procedure at several client sites back "in the day," every time the system had to be shut down for any reason.

Also often a lifesaving surprise when you could bring a drive (and its data) back to life when the customer believed it to be completely dead.

I wouldn't be too quick to give up on an MFM drive unless there are nasty sounds coming from the heads (as opposed to the static strap or the bearings); even then you can sometimes salvage some data from the good platters.

m
 
carlsson said:
The UPS had failed, but power was distributed from elsewhere in the building to keep both the servers and the 6300 going? Does a UPS work in such way that it will deliver power to anything attached to it (the 6300) even if the batteries no longer will charge, or however it works? Otherwise if the old UPS had been out of power for a while it seems to me the AT&T PC should also have shut down at the same time if that was its main power source.
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The UPS was the room's local power, but as always there is a failover to the building's main power in case something goes wrong with the local power. In other words, a failsafe in case the local UPS died (which worked like a charm, actually).
 
Druid6900 said:
Damn, I was waiting for Mike to do the "pining for the fjords" rountine :(
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Actually, I started to but once is enough; gets stale quickly...

So, have you got room for about 6 of those 1.6G HP P4s? Need kbds & mice?
And you did say you wanted a dozen IBM 300GLs, correct?

m
 
The classics never get old, Mike.

To answer your questions; Yes, yes, yes and no bloody way LOL

Just got a spot cleared on the pool table too. Oh well, that's the way it goes....
 
Uhm... interesting thread. What about a disk that spins but isn't recognized? Electronic problems...? Nothing to be done?

Btw, I didn't know that disks can live so long :nervous:
 
A lot of the time when a drive spins up but nothing will recognize it, its logic board has a fault somewhere. If you have 2 identical drives, you could try using the logic board from the other but sometimes that can be a really tricky process because of those easy to tear ribbon cables.
 
Uhm... no, I haven't... But it wasn't important, it is a 20Mb hdd from a pc I am repairing, I have another. I was interested just to save some data or software... Usually when I acquire a pc I save all the sw (often difficult to find... ;) ).
Thanks anyway!
 
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