Hard Disk Failure
03-Oct-93 23:33:26
Sb: #37230-Hard Disk Failure
Fm: Jonathan Hirschman 70274,2526
To: Lee DeWitt 73577,2202
Lee,
I assume that the Quantum 40 meggers are fairly old. This kind of behavior
(sticking heads) is well documented; seems that the Quantum 40's had some
kind of bad design that leads to this.
There is, however, some good news for you. Quantum "fixed" the problem
with a ROM upgrade some time ago (think it was the drive ROM). Seems that
this upgrade causes the mechanism to "flex" it muscles every once in a
while, effectively preventing the sticking. I also hear that it very
slightly impairs drive performance. Of course, stiction completely impairs
drive performance 🙂
I would hunt down Quantum's tech number, and give them a call. A couple
of new chips will probably have you up and running.
If the drives came on a GVP hardcard, they used to supply the fix, too.
//Jonathan,
\\//via AutoPilot