Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!pfratar
From: pfratar@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Paul Frattaroli - DCS)
Subject: Re: Hard drive problems!
Message-ID: <1990Jun12.030930.7093@watserv1.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <9006112346.AA03221@alf.unomaha.edu>
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 90 03:09:30 GMT
Lines: 58

In article <9006112346.AA03221@alf.unomaha.edu> russell@ALF.UNOMAHA.EDU (Tim Russell) writes:
>Hi folks,
>

[stuff deleted]

>
>    Lately, the ST251 has been acting up.  Every once in awhile, it starts
>making a small ticking noise, like it's seeking the head on its own.  Then
>the computer won't access it.  The light on the drive lights up, but it
>just sits there ticking.  Occasionally, it makes a sound like it's seeking
>the heads all the way across the disk, then it goes back to working
>normally.

A friend of mine just had this same thing happen to him on his PS/2
model 50Z.  The drive makes a ticking sound (or soft clunk) kind of
like the sound one of those oil cans make when you squeeze the bottom.
My advice is make a backup NOW!!!!  Don't wait, your drive could go
dead very soon.  My friend's did.  Trying to fix the problem with PC
Tools 5.5 Compress Disk Surface analysis, only made things
progressively worse.  (More and more bad sectors until very little was
useful anymore).
	While this may not be what your problem is, it sounds close.

>
>    Does anyone know what could be causing this?  First I thought heat,
>but then it did it straight from a cold start one morning.  Today I tried
>a new data cable, thinking that the connector may be loose.  No good.
>I'm getting very frustrated!  :-)
>
	My friend and I were of the opinion that there was something 
blocking the read/write head movement.  It just "clunks" into something.  
A piece of hardened lubricant used on the read/write head voice coil 
arm perhaps.  This could knock it off of alignment.  IMHO, I think this can 
be caused by uneven use of the hard disk.  Like, when you have two 
(or more) partitions, (like my friend) and you use one more than the 
other.  Or you almost exclusively use only one or two programs on the 
disk that are physically close together.  This causes the head to move
in a localized spot only.  IMHO, I think you should 
regularly exercise your hard disk.  An easy way to do this is 
running a good defragmenter or optimizer.  Use the standard or 
packed method under normal conditions, and then once in a while run 
the file realignment feature.

Any other opinions?????

>    Thanks profusely in advance for any help you can give me!
>
>--
>  Tim Russell      University of Nebraska at Omaha    russell@alf.unomaha.edu 
>       "The opera ain't over till the last heterosexual falls asleep!"

....Paul F


-- 
           Paul Frattaroli - Department of Computing Services                          University of Waterloo  Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2L-3G1                 < pfratar@watshine.UWaterloo.ca >        < pfratar@watserv1.UWaterloo.ca >
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