Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!rex!rouge!bkd3019
From: bkd3019@rouge.usl.edu (Dore Brian K)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Open Hard Drives
Message-ID: <17582@rouge.usl.edu>
Date: 30 Oct 90 16:57:13 GMT
Reply-To: bkd3019@usl.edu ()
Organization: Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana
Lines: 20

When I was working at a computer store last year, a customer had
problems with a st225 refusing to spin up.  We couldn't get it to
move by tapping it, so we opened up the drive and 'push started' it.
 
We were able to backup the drive and replace it.  The 'broken' drive
looked neat, so my boss put it on a shelf as a display, without the
cover.  We refered to it from time to time to answer quesions.  About
3 months later, on a slow day, while showing it off to a customer, he
asked if it would still work.  I replied that I doubted it, but since
I had a machine on the bench already open, we could see what it would
do.  I blew the dust off of the platters with a can of compressed air,
hooked it up.  The machine not only booted from the drive, but successfuly
read the software and files that were installed on it.  We played
with it for about 5 minutes without any errors.  It's back on display
now...

I wouldn't keep anything important on a drive that had been opened, but
they DO still work. 

Brian