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From: brian@mermaid.micro.umn.edu (Mail Delivery Subsystem)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: IDE hard disk problems
Message-ID: <1991May29.190230.14406@cs.umn.edu>
Date: 29 May 91 19:02:30 GMT
References: <3084@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> <1991May28.115149.14644@esseye.UUCP> <1991May29.033504.8156@ariel.unm.edu>
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honeywel@chama.unm.edu (Honeywell Field Service) writes:
Stuff about sticktion apparently in reference to people who's harddrives
stop in the middle of working, then start working again.  Just to clarify,
don'tchaknow.  As far as I know (got my Rodime fixed):

He says:
>What is apparently occuring is that the heads are actually sticking or
>adhering to the platter surfaces with sufficient force to keep the
>motor from spinning.
Exactly.

>The only solution if you're experiencing the problem frequently is to
>replace the media--this means shipping your disk off to a repair center.
Aside from the temporary fix to get it going (for that one last backup)
this is what needs to be done :-(

>When I asked what was causing the problem, the answers were a little vague.
>The possibility of contaminant from the motor coating either the media or
>the heads was mentioned.
Take two very polished very flat metal plates and hold them together.  Now
try to slide them.  I've been told it sticks like crazy.  I doubt it's
contamination, especially since so many people have this problem.

>From what I understood, "sticktion" has been around all along on the 
>pc disk drives,...
The way I hear it, the newer, more polished, smoother, higher capacity
drives have this problem more, and that the relatively rough surfaced
(but lower capacity) older drives had this problem infrequently.

--
Brian
"When I have a headache, NO ONE gets laid!" - hin9@midway.uchicago.edu (T. Rev)
"Mark "When I finish the Apple Jacks, NOBODY gets any" Lippert"