Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU!gmw1
From: gmw1@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Gabe M Wiener)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Need help - problem with PL30 hard drive
Summary: sounds pretty normal to me
Message-ID: <8904091504.AA25180@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: 9 Apr 89 15:04:02 GMT
References: <2312@viscous.sco.COM>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener)
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 34

In article <2312@viscous.sco.COM> jamesm@sco.COM (James M. Moore) writes:
>Strange problem:  when I power up my Mac plus, I've got to first turn
>on the Peripheral Land 30 hard drive and wait about ten seconds until
>I hear a chuga-chuga-chuga sound.  At that point I can turn on the Mac
>plus itself, and boot normally.  If I don't wait, and turn both on at
>the same time, the mac will fail to boot off the hard drive (just get
>a black grey screen).  This is absolutely consistent and always
>repeatable.  Any ideas?  I'm running finder 6.1 and system 6.0.2, and
>it's happened with all the other systems I've had on here.  Anyone
>have any idea why, and what I can do to fix it?


Sounds OK to me.  A hard drive mechanism needs a few seconds to accelerate
to speed, unlock the heads, and do various other "housekeeping" tasks before
it puts itself online.  If you switch the mac and the drive on at the same 
time, the mac will look for the hard drive too quickly, and thus it will 
appear that there is no drive present, and so the mac won't mount the drive.

By turning the hard drive on first, you let it come online, and then the mac
can mount it.

It's very similar to the way the mac won't recognize a LaserWriter until the
rollers are hot enough.



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