Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!virtue!canterbury.ac.nz!elec135
From: elec135@canterbury.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: IDE okay???
Message-ID: <1990Sep28.173932.9259@canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: 28 Sep 90 10:38:40 GMT
References: <6470005@hpspkla.spk.hp.com>
Organization: University of Canterbury
Lines: 20

In article <6470005@hpspkla.spk.hp.com>, bollard@hpspkla.spk.hp.com (Lee M. Bollard) writes:
> My ST4096 Seagate disk shows bad SYSTEM sectors every time I try using
> Spinrite on it.  Even when doing a DOS format it says "disk unusable"
> but I'm able to get it to work after dinking around a bit.  Weird thing
> is that it works FINE until I TEST IT!!  (maybe I should quit testing it)

a bad track can be skipped over by software, unless it is track zero, which
holds initial bootup junk, etc.. i've found problems when someone has
unsucessfully tried to get a drive going, failed, and then put it aside, with
the heads unparked (and over the first track!). a fixit that i have used, rather
than throwing out the drive, is to move the position sensors that fix where the
tracks are. these are usually not too difficult to get at, usually outside the
sealed casing; even if they are inside, you don't have much to loose. just move
them a bit either way; all you need is the first track ok. if it works, sell
the drive quickly :-)

rob

Robert Rozee, EEE Department, University of Canterbury, 
Christchurch, New Zealand. ROZEE@ELEC.CANTERBURY.AC.NZ