#Hard Drive Dying?
16 messages in this thread
Is my hard drive dying? I have a Seagate ST251 (ST-506 type) and am using
a Commodore A2090 (the classic edition, no autobooting for this baby <g>).
Normally the drive makes some noise for about 2 or 3 seconds during power
up as the heads fly back and forth (doing who knows what?), but about a
month ago they were silent during this phase. When Amy went to use the
hard drive the green light came on and stayed on, end of show. After taking
the cover off and reseating everything the drive came up normally. About a
week ago the story repeated itself. Last night it happened again, except
the drive never responded to my efforts, pleadings, begging, . . . Tonight,
taking mercy on me and being pleased with my abject behavior, the drive
came up. What can be done? Am I about to become a poorer man for this
experience? Please help.
Thanks, Ed
Ed – just a wild guess, but perhaps your drive isn't coming up to speed?
Can you hear it actually spin up? If the drive gets sticky (I forget which
Seagates did this) or the 12volt power isn't up to snuff, a hard drive will
simply stop trying to spin up the platters (normal safety op).
Try kicking the power switch on/off/on a coupla times when this happens
again. Maybe that'll "kickstart" the platters up to speed. Luck!
Kevin,
Thanks for the advice. When it doesn't work I can't feel any vibrations
from the drive so I presume that it is not spinning up as you say. Would
cleaning the power connector or blowing any dust away from the drive's
circuit board help?
Again thanks, Ed
Ed,
Sounds like you're experiencing "stiction"…a problem with some
drives that have an excess of platter lubricant on them. The lubricant
builds up over a period of time on the outer edges of the drive….just
where you park the heads…and causes the heads to "stick" to the platter
after the drive is spun down. Thus it can't spin back up.
The only know cure is to have the platters replaced (causing loss
of ALL data on the drive…so make sure you have a backup!) or once you get
it running…to leave it on 24 hours a day.
Don
Don,
Thanks for the advice. Any ballpark estimates on how much a platter
replacement job might cost?
Thanks again Ed
P.S. 'Enjoy your hard drives while ye may . . .' One shock was all it
took to convert me into a believer and regular attendee at Our Lady of the
Backups 🙂
Ed,
I'd guess in the $100 price range for a new set of platters on the
drive. Call a few HD repair shops in your area and see what they think.
Don
Don,
Thanks for the help, will check around.
Ed
Hi: Pardon me for jumping in here but this sounds simular to a problem I
had in December. My hard drive start refusing to boot now and then and
finally quit all together with only a clicking noise. The manufacterer sent
new ROMs for the drive to no avail. My +12 vdc was running 11.6 which was
in the +-10% allowed for the 150 watt PC power suppy I was using for the
harddrive. Turns out the harddrive won't run on reliably below 11.8.
Returned the power supply 3 times and got replacements that all had low
voltage even tho they were "tested prior to shipment". Finally looking
through a PC hardware manual at work I found mention of a load resistor
used on the 5volt output to maintain a minimum required load for proper
regulation of the power supply output. Sure enough When i added a 10 ohm 10
watt (it gets hot, watch where its mounted) across the 5 volt line at the
power supply the 12 volts came right up to 12 volts and the drive worked
fine from then on. This took months and the "tech" people at Jameco were no
help at all. BTW, make sure you've got the proper voltages to the drive.
Hope this helps someone………WES
Ed:
It's been a few days since you put up your message, and you may know this
by now.
Some Seagates had a problem with excess lubricant. The lubricant would
roll up into little worms, and, upon shutdown, would settle in between the
disks. When you went to boot up, the viscous drage of this excess
lubricant would be too much for the drive to overcome, and it would simply
sit there. This didn't happen all the time, and, in fact, after you had
the machine on a while (which warmed things up), a rebout would often break
the drive loose, and things would be OK again.
I had this problem with a 20 meg seagate on a GVP hardcard. When I finally
found out what was going on, I switched out to a 40 meg Quantum. Haven't
had any problems since (GVP took the Seagate bacvk, and, I assume, made
Seagate eat it.)
?|^] Ray Lewis
Ray,
Thanks for the help, the consensus so far is that it's either a 'sticktion'
problem due to excess lubricant as you suggested or a voltage problem.
Ed
Ray:
Do you know if the ST225's (not the N variety) were also plauged with the
excess lube problem? I have an ST225 on the BB side, and every once in a
while, the system doesn't recognise the drive (I get a boot drive error)
and I either have to power down, or wait 5 or 10 minites, and then give the
BB side a three finger salute!
-Mike Schiller
CIS: 76416,3065
Mike,
If the drive had the lube problem…a re-boot wouldn't 'save' it.
Don
Don:
It would on mine, if I let it run for a while. I think it heated up enough
to break free on the reboot.
?|^] Ray Lewis
Saw this one late, if the "lube" problem is the head sticking to the
disk preventing it from spinning up, you can start the drive by hand by
nudging the drive motor rotor with a toothpick or the likes of. The drive
can get very hot if left "stuck" and powered on. I was told by a drive
tech that temp flucuations and humidity can contribute to this problem
which has been fairly common on 225's in our portables that salesmen use;
leave in car trunk, etc.
HarryM.
I don't know, Mike. When I had the problem with the 20 megger I had, I
posted a HELP message here, and several folks told me about the lubricant
problem. It may have been through the Seagate line at the time. I do
think, however, it was temporary. Seagate sells a lot of drives, and this
only shows up now and then.
?|^] Ray Lewis
Ray:
I really can't complain. I bought the drive from my Amiga dealer who said
they tried to hook it up to an Atari, but it only formatted out to 10megs,
and so he thought one of the platters might be bad, so he only charged me
$10.00 for the drive. When I got it home, and installed it, it formatted
out to a full 20meg with no problems. I suspect that the problem might be
with Janus, as it never happens from a cold boot, only a warm one.
-Mike Schiller
CIS: 76416,3065