Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!p4tustin!carl
From: carl@p4tustin.UUCP (Carl W. Bergerson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: hard drive problems!!!
Message-ID: <3849@p4tustin.UUCP>
Date: 23 May 91 15:04:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: p4tustin.3849
References: <1991May11.203655.28768@ritcsh.csh.rit.edu>
Organization: POINT 4 Data Corporation, Tustin, CA
Lines: 28

woody@ritcsh.csh.rit.edu (Craig Woodward) writes:
> 
> I've had the worst problems with a ST250R.  Now I face another,  it seems that
> the drive dosent like to spin up.  I turned it on one day after a rest from a
> long period of activity, and it made this little squeel and stopped.  I took
> the drive out of the assembly and shook it (torqured it a little to rotate the
> disks) and tried again, it worked.  Now the problem-- it like to be torqued 
> every time I leave it off for more that a few hours.  Normaly this is not a
> . . .

What Woody has described is a failure mode commonly known as "stiction" in
which the heads adhere to the platters and cause the disk to not spin up.
His solution of rotating the platters slightly is the recommended bandaid.

The fix is to have a qualified technician clean or replace the disk
platters.

Stiction is a very common problem with the Seagate ST225/ST238R and
ST251/ST277R drives (ST250R is not a valid Seagate model number).

If there's a FAQ for this news group this certainly ought to be in it.

Carl
-- 
Carl Bergerson                                           uunet!p4tustin!carl  
Point 4 Data Corporation                                     carl@point4.com
15442 Del Amo Avenue                                   Voice: (714) 259 0777
Tustin, CA 92680-6445                                    Fax: (714) 259 0921