12 Oct
2010
12 Oct
'10
5:36 a.m.
Hi,
Apologies that my first post to this list for a while is one requesting
assistance, but my unjustified faith in hard drive technology has bitten
me... The Seagate drive in my VAXstation 4000/90 (running OpenVMS 7.3)
failed recently and it hadn't been backed up for quite a while. We had a
power surge which tripped the main circuit breaker, and when I reset the
breaker and turned the box back on the drive failed to spin up. The
drive is recognized by the firmware, except that the capacity column
shows ... instead of a figure. An LED on the controller circuit board
lights a couple of times reinforcing that the drive electronics are
talking across the SCSI bus, but as I say the drive refuses to spin up.
The box was running a website dedicated to HECNet (it was at
http://www.hecnet.eu) using the WASD webserver and was able to report on
issues with the network and current HECnet nodes.
My (limited) diagnostic skills would point towards a drive motor
controller failure, or less likely sticking heads. Given that the drive
has been powered down and up on a number of occasions without issue I'm
thinking it is probably a controller failure rather than a head problem,
but I'm open to alternative opinions.
Does anyone have a Seagate ST39173N drive they would be prepared to part
with for a reasonable amount of money? At the moment the only drives I
can find are in the region of $150 which is more than I can comfortably
part with on the off chance that swapping the controller board might
give the drive new life.
Many thanks for the help.
Mark.
12 Oct
12 Oct
12:23 p.m.
Mark Wickens wrote:
Does anyone have a Seagate ST39173N drive they would
be prepared to part
with for a reasonable amount of money?
I'd check for sticky heads first -- I've been caught that way when a
Seagate drive that was used intermittently would not spin up one day.
I don't have a ST39173N (9.1GB Barracuda narrow SCSI-2) but according to
my (out of date!) list of spare drives, I might have a wide drive which
should work with an adaptor, but it might not be a Seagate drive.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
2:15 p.m.
On 12/10/10 17:23, Pete Turnbull wrote:
Mark Wickens wrote:
Hi Pete,
Thanks for the help. I'll need to track down exactly the same pcb down
to firmware revision if I have any hope of swapping it.
I am going to try the drive tonight in some different configurations
(upside down/on its side) to see if anything different happens. However,
the drive was on 24/7 before it failed due to the power issue, so I
think realistically it is more likely to be a blown pcb.
I've now moved over to using a BA356 enclosure with volume shadowing and
the works, so this problem won't happen again hopefully!
Regards, Mark.
Does anyone have a Seagate ST39173N drive they
would be prepared to
part with for a reasonable amount of money?
I'd check for sticky heads first -- I've been caught that way when a
Seagate drive that was used intermittently would not spin up one day.
I don't have a ST39173N (9.1GB Barracuda narrow SCSI-2) but according
to my (out of date!) list of spare drives, I might have a wide drive
which should work with an adaptor, but it might not be a Seagate drive.
3:35 p.m.
On 12 October 2010 19:15, Mark Wickens <mark at wickensonline.co.uk> wrote:
On 12/10/10 17:23, Pete Turnbull wrote:
I have a few 9.1GB SCSI drives around. I'll try to remember to check,
but if you've not heard in a few days, prod me by direct email.
--
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Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
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Mark Wickens wrote:
Hi Pete,
Thanks for the help. I'll need to track down exactly the same pcb down to
firmware revision if I have any hope of swapping it. Does anyone have a Seagate ST39173N drive they
would be prepared to part
with for a reasonable amount of money?
I'd check for sticky heads first -- I've been caught that way when a
Seagate drive that was used intermittently would not spin up one day.
I don't have a ST39173N (9.1GB Barracuda narrow SCSI-2) but according to
my (out of date!) list of spare drives, I might have a wide drive which
should work with an adaptor, but it might not be a Seagate drive.
7:41 p.m.
Mark Wickens wrote:
My (limited) diagnostic skills would point towards a drive motor
controller failure, or less likely sticking heads. Given that the drive
has been powered down and up on a number of occasions without issue I'm
thinking it is probably a controller failure rather than a head problem,
but I'm open to alternative opinions.
I've gotten my data off of more than one SCSI drive by freezing it
and whacking it. Let it stabilize in the freezer for a few hours, drop
it flat from a foot or so, and plug it in *quickly* to a system that can
take a backup.
It's a one-shot deal - that's invariably been the last time the drive
spun up.
Doc
13 Oct
13 Oct
4 a.m.
Doc wrote:
Mark Wickens wrote:
Useful, I agree, and often successful, though one should remember to
check that the electronics aren't covered in condensation when you power
it up :-)
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
My (limited) diagnostic skills would point towards a drive motor
controller failure, or less likely sticking heads. Given that the
drive has been powered down and up on a number of occasions without
issue I'm thinking it is probably a controller failure rather than a
head problem, but I'm open to alternative opinions.
I've gotten my data off of more than one SCSI drive by freezing it and
whacking it. Let it stabilize in the freezer for a few hours, drop it
flat from a foot or so, and plug it in *quickly* to a system that can
take a backup.
It's a one-shot deal - that's invariably been the last time the drive
spun up. 
6:38 a.m.
On 13/10/10 09:00, Pete Turnbull wrote:
Useful, I agree, and often successful, though one
should remember to
check that the electronics aren't covered in condensation when you power
it up :-)
Get a couple of silica gel pouches and a Ziplock bag -- put the silica
gel pouches in the bag, followed by the HDD, then seal it. Put the
sealed bag in the freezer and leave it for a while (say an hour or so).
Worked for me the last time I did this...
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/
7:37 a.m.
At 05:38 AM 10/13/2010, Philip Pemberton wrote:
Get a couple of silica gel pouches and a Ziplock bag --
put the silica gel pouches in the bag, followed by the HDD, then seal it. Put the sealed
bag in the freezer and leave it for a while (say an hour or so).
The condensation happens after you take the cold metal item out
of the freezer and into warm humid air, no?
- John
9:35 a.m.
Pete Turnbull wrote:
Doc wrote:
Indeed. I've used big pans of ice sat upon the drive before as a way of
keeping the temperature down long enough to get the data off - seems to work
well (just use something as a non-conductive barrier on the PCB side).
If that Seagate drive is the one I'm thinking of, they had a reputation for
running hot and slowly cooking themselves :-( I think I have one with a
narrow interface still, but it's overseas so unfortunately I'm not getting to
it any time soon.
If the problem is heads stuck to platters, then worst-case you could open the
drive up and try freeing them by turning the spindle manually - I've had good
results with that in the past. Do it in as clean an environment that you can
manage (and ditch the drive afterwards, obviously).
cheers
Jules
Mark Wickens wrote:
Useful, I agree, and often successful, though one should remember to
check that the electronics aren't covered in condensation when you power
it up :-)
My (limited) diagnostic skills would point towards a drive motor
controller failure, or less likely sticking heads. Given that the
drive has been powered down and up on a number of occasions without
issue I'm thinking it is probably a controller failure rather than a
head problem, but I'm open to alternative opinions.
I've gotten my data off of more than one SCSI drive by freezing it
and whacking it. Let it stabilize in the freezer for a few hours,
drop it flat from a foot or so, and plug it in *quickly* to a system
that can take a backup.
It's a one-shot deal - that's invariably been the last time the
drive spun up.
5008
days inactive
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8 comments
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participants (7)
-
classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk -
doc＠vaxen.net -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
lproven＠gmail.com -
mark＠wickensonline.co.uk -
pete＠dunnington.plus.com