From: Ronald Teune <rtwolf_at_gmx.net>
Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2004 00:09:27 +0200

On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 17:39:26 -0400, Neon John <johngd_at_bellsouth.net> wrote:

> On Mon, 2 Aug 2004 17:33:53 +0200, "Jürgen Hestermann"
> <juergen.hestermann_at_gmx.de> wrote:
>
>>> > The head had not parked, and seemed to be stuck on the platter.
>>> After a
>>> > little persuasion, the heads landed home, and the platter was free..
>>> Stuck disks may get free if the drive is twisted with rapid
>>> acceleration
>>> aroud the spindle axis. If this doesn't help, you can try to slap the
>>> edge
>>> of the drive against something rigid, in a direction you suspect the
>>> heads
>>> to go outward.
>>
>> Yes, I once had a PC where the head of the disk stuck on the platter
>> after *every* shutdown. On every startup I had to kick the pc which let
>> the head go free again. I expected that this rude treatment would damage
>> some parts one day. But I did this for years *daily* without any effect.
>
> Amazing what we have to do sometimes to get the $^&&* computer to work.
> I had
> a 386 that I used for oh, 10 years that would NOT start up unless the
> processor chip was cold. Once on, it did just fine. I left it on most
> of the
> time. When I had to power cycle I had a can of canned air that I
> sprayed the
> chip with while holding the can upside down. When the chip was good and
> frosty the computer would boot.
>
> John

I had an Amiga 2000 with a so-called bridgeboard (bridge between amiga and
a super1337 8088 iirc), and it had a 20 MB (!!!) drive connected. I got it
second hand, and it wouldn't spin up anymore. So i took out the screws a
bit, leave the top on it so it would open enough for my finger to get
inside, and when booting i gave it a little push, and there I'd go...
Can't imagine how bad it would be for today's drives :-)

Ronald
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Received on 2004-08-03