Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!mcnc!rti!bcw
From: bcw@rti.UUCP (Bruce Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Reformatting a HD
Summary: Fixing hard disk drives
Message-ID: <2878@rti.UUCP>
Date: 9 Apr 89 17:07:55 GMT
References: <3607@cvl.umd.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC
Lines: 76

In article <3607@cvl.umd.edu>, brian@cvl.umd.edu (Brian Miller) writes:
> Recently, the hard disk of a friend of mine crashed, and indicated
> that the boot track was trashed.  Not having any neato-keen utilities
> available, we decided to go ahead and try to reformat (nothing on 
> the disk was critical to him).  Well, to make a long story short,
> it didn't work.  
> 
> Here are the particluars:
> 	MiniScribe 40 Meg 
> 	Western-Digital controller (MFM I believe)
> 	Kaypro 10Mhz XT clone
> 	Dos 3.x (not 3.3 tho')
> We tried to use the program on the controller board (the g=c800:5 trick),
> but when it attempted to format, it exited with completion code 80.
> Nothing in any of the documantation explained this, so we are in the
> dark about what to do.  I'm sorry the info is somewhat sketchy, but we
> were doing this at 2 in the morning over the phone.  

You might try putting the disk drive into another machine with a different
controller and different cables. (not necessarily a different controller
model, just a different controller).  I have sometimes known controller
or cable problems to masquerade as disk drive problems.

The probability is high that it's a disk problem however.  If there was
no warning (bad sectors and so forth) before the disk drive stopped
working, and if the machine was not abused (such as moving it while it
was turned on, dropping it, etc), there is a good chance that it's just
the drive electronics that have gone bad.  This is somewhat more
repairable than if the head assembly or the media have been damaged,
which leads us to:
 
> They were kind enough to give my friend the address of a
> place to get the drive fixed (at $100 an hour, and an estimated
> 3 1/2 hours to repair).  Is there any way to get at least _some_ of
> the money for repairs from these people?

It is quite likely that if the only problem is a drive electronics
problem, that the disk drive repair place can repair the disk for a
(somewhat) reasonable price.  The bad news is that it is unlikely that
they will be able to restore it to factory specs - the electronics need
to be adjusted at the factory (there are slight variations in different
"identical" electronic components which have to be compensated for).
The drive repair place is unlikely to have either the equipment or the
expertise to do this.  If the problem is with the heads or the media,
that will involve opening the drive itself which is quite likely to
reduce the life expectancy of the repaired drive.

If you can afford it, it is usually best to get another -new- drive.
Barring that, most drive manufacturers have a program under which they
will ship you a refurbished drive to swap for your old drive (they will
then be able to refurbish your drive and as noted above they are more
likely to be in a better position to do this than a brand-X drive repair
place).  The drawback is that they are likely to charge more than the
brand-X repair place (though not as much as for a new drive).  They are
also more likely to give some sort of limited warranty.

As far as getting the place to pay for the repair/replacement of the
drive, don't count on it.  They may or may not have a moral obligation,
but from your description they probably don't have a legal obligation
unless they -knew- that that particular drive was defective.  A high
out-of-warranty failure rate (which is likely to be significantly less 
than 100% or even 25%) is probably not enough.  From the point of view
of the retailer, a warranty is a lot of trouble - even if it's covered
by the factory, there are still a lot of forms to fill out and so forth.
Therefore, those places which allow a longer warranty (or allow you to
purchase an extended warranty) generally will charge a higher price for
it whether it is a factory warranty or the merchant's own warranty.  (It
may be worth it to find a retailer from whom you can buy an extended
warranty - even if you don't buy it, the price will give you an idea of
the estimate of the warrantor (merchant or factory) of how often the
drive will need repair.

Good luck.  We've had to fight a -lot- of bad disk problems on our
PCs and it isn't very pleasant.

						Bruce C. Wright