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From: cseaman@sequent.UUCP (Chris "I'm Outta Here, Man!" Seaman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Quantum Parking Drives  (Was: Re: 2 Amiga 3000 Questions)
Message-ID: <37954@sequent.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jul 90 00:20:01 GMT
References: <1065@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu> <33215@ut-emx.UUCP> <198@mohawk.cs.utexas.edu>
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Beaverton, OR
Lines: 23

bryan@cs.utexas.edu (Bryan Bayerdorffer @ Wit's End) writes:
< lshaw@walt.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw) writes:
< =-After you have not used the disk for a period of 5 or 10 seconds, the
< =-drive will decide to park itself.  Thus, you don't have to do it yourself.
< =-Sometimes you'll see the little light flash when it does this.
<
< 	Er, no.  The hard disk light flashes briefly after a short timeout
< (which is more like 3 seconds) because the disk validator is accessing the
< drive, updating the bitmap for some partition.  This is the Amiga system
< software at work, not the drive controller.

You are right (as any true Amigoid should know) about the disk validator,
but I believe that Quantum drives do auto-park after a period of
inactivity (somewhere around 2-3 minutes, I think).  You can definitely
hear the heads seek, but there is no 'drive busy' indicator, which implies
that the activity is under the direction of the Quantum controller, not
the Amiga.

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