21 Apr
2004
21 Apr
'04
2:34 a.m.
At 12:42 AM 4/21/04 -0400, you wrote:
One of my more "interesting" experiences was with a Hewlett Packard HP-IB
hard disk drive. I bought it surplus and a quick inspection didn't reveal
anything unusual. Then it powered it up and the drive started making a
clanging sound that quickly changed to something that sounded like a
clothes dryer running full sped with a load of scrap meal in it! I turned
it off and inspected it but didn't see anything unusual until I removed the
actual hard drive AND turned it upside down. Someone had drilled a 1/4"
hole through the cover of the drive and all the platters. Needless to say,
the chips and burrs on the platter quickly crashed the heads and ripped
them to shreds and it became a sort of hispeed blender after that! If you
know anything about Hewlett Packards's external HP-IB drives, you know that
someone went to a LOT of trouble to get it apart, remove the drive and
drill a hole in and put everything back together exactly the way that it
was supposed to be.
Joe
One thing
to remember is that sometimes for equipment to meet the
definition of scrapped, it has to be irrepairably damaged. For
instance, IBM has a strict rule that boards that are scrapped for tax
purposes have to be shredded.
USR used to drill holes in the boards at random places.