HD repair

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
I have a hard drive that is squealing and not reading. Its not critical but I was interested in getting some mail and bookmarks off of it.
Here are some pictures. I have heard of a drop of machine oil in the right places might help.
Any ideas where?
 

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Ummm...

Dave, you can't just open a hard drive and set it down on a paper towel like that. There's a reason why data recovery companies open hard drives in clean rooms. The tolerances are so tiny in modern hard drives that even microscopic dust particles can damage them.

I know a good data recovery guy, but once the drive has been opened like that, I'm not sure he'll be able to do anything with it. Let me know if you want his number, though

Rich
 
It be be worth sending a PM to RJM. He is friends with someone who specializes in this very thing. The problem is--you may have caused some damage by opening and messing with it.
 
Skypilotcfii said:
If you have a computer set up with a working drive and know how to hook up a second drive - live - you might try this. Have the Computer ready because you may only have 10 minutes or less! Seal it in a Ziplock bag and be sure all air is out you can. Put it in the Freezer for 2 - 3 hours. Remove from Freezer and take it to the computer and remove from the bag and hook it up. If it comes up as say Drive D - get all the stuff you want quick to the C Drive! This does not always work but I have had it save data on one with what they call the clicks - where it can't read the disk. Oil sounds like a bad idea but hey? Someone on here probably knows more!
Click to expand...

Oil and water droplets would look like boulders to the drive heads. You'd have water droplets because you're gonna get condensation on cold hardware.

I don't have any advice other than to try a few sharp raps to free up the heads and the platters. You can, BTW, tell if the heads are parked, on the far outside or inside edge of the platter. You have less chance of a head crash when the heads are parked. If they're in the middle somewhere don't hit it. The heads float - actually fly on a layer of air - a few microns above the disk. They can't touch it.
 
Its no big deal, the info on it is worthless. Consider it an exploration into the inner workings of a computer. I was aware of the potential for airborne contaminants and decided to accept the risk.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Its no big deal, the info on it is worthless. Consider it an exploration into the inner workings of a computer. I was aware of the potential for airborne contaminants and decided to accept the risk.
Click to expand...

Well that's good, 'cuz it's trashed now.

I remember seeing a poster that had an example of how close the heads rode to the platters. It showed things like a smoke particle (that was about the size of a soccer ball), a fingerprint (which looked like a mountain) and then the heads about 1/4" off the platters. Change to the real scale of a smoke particle, and you're talking some awfully tight tolerances.

OBTW, that was about 20 years ago. Tolerances are much tighter now. You open the drive, it's officially trash.

The magnets really kick ass though. :yes:
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Well that's good, 'cuz it's trashed now.

I remember seeing a poster that had an example of how close the heads rode to the platters. It showed things like a smoke particle (that was about the size of a soccer ball), a fingerprint (which looked like a mountain) and then the heads about 1/4" off the platters. Change to the real scale of a smoke particle, and you're talking some awfully tight tolerances.

OBTW, that was about 20 years ago. Tolerances are much tighter now. You open the drive, it's officially trash.

The magnets really kick ass though. :yes:
Click to expand...
I recall a training video when in a tech school many decades ago. It was about head height above the platter and how technoology was continually allowing it to get lower and lower. Along with the demonstration, it was playing the sound of a jet flying lower and getting louder.

Of course, at the time 5 Mb required set of a dozen platters, some 15" across and removable from a drive unit weghing a few hundred pounds. I can't even imagine a set of platters so loosely protected these days. Is StorageTek even still around?

stk_logo.gif


Never mind, I see they were bought out by Sun. I guess someone had to dominate the Broomfield-Louisville, Colorado area.
 
what happens when a rock sized piece of dust hits the optical reader? Does it knock it senseless?
 
KennyFlys said:
Poor Louisville. I'm sure there's a developer to do something with that land. It's prime considering its position to Boulder.
Click to expand...

There's a rumor that Google is looking at the campus. We'll see. It is a nice location. The relatively new NW toll road give easy access to DEN and cheaper housing farther north.
 
ejensen said:
There's a rumor that Google is looking at the campus. We'll see. It is a nice location. The relatively new NW toll road give easy access to DEN and cheaper housing farther north.
Click to expand...
Toll road? Where? When?

36 USED TO BE a toll road many, many years ago.
 
Sun's planning on selling the STK campus as Eric noted, but they're still staffing the facility. Had a friend that just went back to Sun last month and they gave him an office in the STK facility. Had another friend at STK that survived the Sun buyout - he's still officed there.
 
KennyFlys said:
Hard Drives aren't optical but rather, magnetic. CD Drives are optical.
Click to expand...
For storage, and I am sure that is what you are talking about, that is absolutely true. In the motor servo however there is very likely to be an optical disk (IR) that is used to manage the speed of the drive. But it has no relationship with the storage media which is, as you said, magnetic.
 
Golden and Arvada are still fighting over the route of the remaining leg of the 470 beltway ... The glowing grounds are now declared SAFE SAFE SAFE (yeah, uh huh, sure they are... I worked there and I've seen the records ... matter of fact, I built some of the databases that tracked this stuff, among other things)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-470
 
gkainz said:
The glowing grounds are now declared SAFE SAFE SAFE
Click to expand...
Heh, the glowing grounds. I had a private tour of the glowing grounds maybe 15 years ago. We had a project to map the area and the higher-ups wanted me to see up close and personal the buildings I should not crash into should I lose the engine. :rolleyes:

I think the guys that gave me the tour thought it was a crock of stuff too so we went out joyriding in their 4x4 looking for two-headed deer, etc.
 
gkainz said:
Golden and Arvada are still fighting over the route of the remaining leg of the 470 beltway ... The glowing grounds are now declared SAFE SAFE SAFE (yeah, uh huh, sure they are... I worked there and I've seen the records ... matter of fact, I built some of the databases that tracked this stuff, among other things)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-470
Click to expand...
What database work did you do? For who?

Back about 1990-1991, I was working for a temp agency that contracted to a company in Lakewood. I can't recall the name now. It was a division of an international engineering company. We were reviewing and rewriting documentation for how every single item was disposed. It was detailed down to the last Kleenex tissue and its contents.

I remember it pretty well. The first temp agency lied to me about what it was paying. I went to another and made another two bucks an hour. The interesting thing about it... beside the woman from the company who hired the temps, I was the only other person who knew so well how to use Microsoft Word 3.0 and the computers that were used... a Mac SE30. :)

Rather than swapping disks around all the time, I got her to let me set up Appletalk and put the dozen machines on a network. Speak of technology!

I had taken such a load off that woman she had ordered the temp agency to give me a raise. That was a pretty good gig that lasted about six months.
 
I was with Oracle at the time, but your story sounds oh so familiar. The "subs of the subs" was a nightmare. I was there from '91 - ~ '95 with some interruptions while I worked other projects. I was on the conversion of RHRS (I think this was the acronym - tracked dosimeter readings for individuals) to Oracle on VMS, as well as a couple of waste management databases, WEMS and another that tracked the ins and outs of the super compactor - a multi-million $$ giant trash compactor I don't think ever went into production. It was designed to squish 50 gallon drums of low-level waste into pucks that could be transported easily. One problem was all the low-level waste was stored in 30 gallon drums and they didn't fit the machine. So, one bright engineer suggests buying truckloads of new 50 gallon drums, drop the 30 gallon drum inside and squish 'em both.

Yeah, I had one of those spiffy Mac SE30s as a terminal to the VAX system. I was also on the ccMail to Oracle Mail conversion ... what a boondoggle.

I spent most of my time off plant at Westminster, but the last 6 months of our contract was on-site in buildings with "WARNING - HOT AREAS - DO NOT TOUCH" signs plastered all over ...
 
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