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From: unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu (The Unknown User)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Hard Drive Woes...
Message-ID: <10512@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Date: 2 Jan 91 03:11:10 GMT
Sender: usenet@darkstar.ucsc.edu
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz; Open Access Computing
Lines: 69



	I posted here recently about a hard drive I had gotten on a clear-
ance sale..  (A Seagate ST251N 40 meg hard drive)

	I went to an electronics store and bought a hard drive case/fan/power
supply ($50.. pretty good price when you see that Tulin case/power supply costs
what, like $100-$150?)

	Well, I have had some weird happenings with stuff.. The original
cable on the back of the case was a 40 pin IDC cable (like the Disk ][ 
cables, but more pins).. A service guy said that the case was apparently made 
for IDE (?) drives..

	Since the power supply and hard drive have the same actual power plug,
I have assumed all along that the power supply is right for the drive.. The
male plug on the drive is 4 cylindrical pins pointing up with a plastic
rectangular receptacle around them so that the plug can only go in one way.

	Well, I hooked everything up, and made a SCSI cable.. The regular
store I went to was out of one type of connector since it seems other people
were doing basically the same thing I was doing.. (The guy said something
to the effect of "People are realizing they can use the drives on their Macs"
Which, even though I don't have a Mac, was exactly what I was doing)..
Jeez, those no-solder ribbon-connect connectors are really neat.. I actually
busted a little hook on BOTH ends so neither hooks 100% together, but they stay
together well enough..

	Another thing..  The guys at Fry's (where I bought the drive) told me
the connection was straight through from the 50 pin IDC connector on the back 
of the drive to the 50 pin Centronics connector where the SCSI cable connects.

	Well, back to the story..  I hooked everything up, turned on the drive,
let it spin up, turned on the computer, booted GS/OS.. And NOTHING.. I was
starting to worry when it didn't bring up the little box that says "install
a SCSI driver and reboot".. But I rebooted once regular for the heck of it.. 
Then I installed the driver just in case... And still it wouldn't recognize the
drive..

	So I took everything apart.. And there was a trace on the board
underneath the drive that was -in the air- above the board and broken..
So it had apparently burned out.

	Now from then on I've basically been paranoid that I burned the
drive out..  We tested the power supply at Fry's and it was giving the correct 
voltages.

	The only thing I can think of is this:

	(1) Even though the case and drive have the same plug, could they
have different presumptions about which voltage is on which pin??!  Seems
doubtful to me..

	Other than that, what could I have done wrong?

	The good news is that Fry's took it back to send back to Seagate,
since it seems like I didn't do anything stupid, so it could have been a
manufacturing defect or something..

	It'll take 4-8 weeks to get back, but I'm already trying to find out 
more about the drive and such (I will call Seagate to try to get a manual
or something..  Since this was a clearance sale, all I got was the drive
on a piece of cardboard shrinkwrapped.. It -does- have the warranty though).

	Any kind of info that would help me learn about this drive and/or
prevent anything from happening again would be greatly appreciated.
-- 
/Apple II(GS) Forever! unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu MAIL ME FOR INFO ABOUT CHEAP CDs\
\WRITE TO ORIGIN ABOUT ULTIMA VI //e and IIGS! Mail me for addresses, & info. /