Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!psuvax1!psuvm!msu.bitnet!18215mes
From: 18215MES@MSU.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: (possible) Easy 'stiction' fix- Quantum HD
Message-ID: <14218215MES@MSU>
Date: 27 Oct 89 14:43:55 GMT
Organization: Michigan State University
Lines: 33

Possible Easy Fix for 'Stiction' Quantum Drives
Background
I own a Mac Plus / CMS 60 at Home.
I use a Mac Plus/Peak HD 30  and 2cx 4/80 at work.
The CMS Hard Disk Utility is fairly versatile (better than Apples).
Once When the Peak at work crashed, I used the CMS utilities to re-format it (A
pples would not). It Works fine.
Shortly After purchase of the 2cx 4/80 - it showed classic 'stiction' symptoms
- during the next few weeks reading the net, I tried
most of the hints/fixes folks had suggested, including holding down the control
 and option (as in rebuilding the desktop), and
standing the 2cx in the vertical position.
After one bad crash, I got so fed up, I decided to try reformatting the drive,
and, not sure what the real cause of the problem was,
thought I would try the CMS utilities to format the 80 meg quantum. The CMS uti
lities has a 'verify disk blocks' option built in. I
don't remember why I started doing this, but every morning now (while reading t
he campus paper), I run the 'Verify Disk Blocks'
option in the CMS utilities which takes 5-20 minutes depending on whether I'm i
n multifinder or not, and how many applications I have
running. The disk access light is flickering constantly while the app is runnin
g. This seems to 'exercise' the drive, and I have not
had any problems with the hard disk for at least one month. Should I knock on w
ood?
One idea. If Apples fix involves 'exercising' the drive during idle, would it b
e possible to have a little app boot up at night, and
give the drive a good 'exercise' instead of running during normal daytime use,
and causing a degradation of performance (not to
mention noise, and more worry and frustration) which I think I have heard other
s complain about who have gotten the Apple/Quantum
fix?
Maybe CMS could make their utilities public domain... (I know this sounds ridic
ulous, but WHO KNOWS?)

Mark sartor, 221 Ag Hall , MSU, East Lansing MI. - 517-3553776