25 Jun
2002
25 Jun
'02
10:06 a.m.
Does anyone know of any resources on the web that describe the various
sounds hard drives will make before they start to crash?
Like, I know from experience that when I hear a hard drive occasionally
buzz or give out a momentary high pitched squeal, it means the bearings
are failing and it will probably eventually crash (maybe not soon, but
eventually).
Anyone have any info on this?
Thanks!
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
25 Jun
25 Jun
11:02 a.m.
Hi,
Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com> said:
Does anyone know of any resources on the web that describe the various
sounds hard drives will make before they start to crash?
Like, I know from experience that when I hear a hard drive occasionally
buzz or give out a momentary high pitched squeal, it means the bearings
are failing and it will probably eventually crash (maybe not soon, but
eventually).
Anyone have any info on this?
I've had 2 hard drives* fail in this way. On dismantling it was clear
that in both cases the original grease had gone hard. Both made that
high pitched squeal. Both ran for a few months like that before they
stopped turning for good.
* A full-height 30Mb IBM in my 1985 AT and the 20MB drive in my Mac SE.
--
Cheers,
Stan Barr stanb(a)dial.pipex.com
The future was never like this!
7:30 p.m.
At 09:02 PM 6/25/02 +0100, you wrote:
I've seen this happen most frequently on hot-running drives (such
as the barracudas and those 2GB HVD SCSI that HP used in their '700
hundred series in the early 90's--I forget the model, C2490? ).
Thus, it makes sense that the failure mode was that of the
grease going hard; this should be specially frequent at
higher temperatures.
I've had quite a few ST410800 (WD, N and W suffixes) 5.25" drives up
and running continuously for >5 years in a variety of machines, though.
They are incredibly reliable.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Carlos E. Murillo-Sanchez carlos_murillo(a)nospammers.ieee.org
Like, I know
from experience that when I hear a hard drive occasionally
buzz or give out a momentary high pitched squeal, it means the bearings
are failing and it will probably eventually crash (maybe not soon, but
eventually).
I've had 2 hard drives* fail in this way. On dismantling it was clear
that in both cases the original grease had gone hard. Both made that
high pitched squeal. Both ran for a few months like that before they
stopped turning for good. 
7:55 p.m.
At 12:30 AM 6/26/02 -0400, you wrote:
I've seen this happen most frequently on
hot-running drives (such
as the barracudas and those 2GB HVD SCSI that HP used in their '700
hundred series in the early 90's--I forget the model, C2490? ).
I'll have to check our HP service contract receipts -- we had at least three
drive failures in four years on an HP (Apollo) 715/75 workstation. Between
that and the DAT drive failures on our 9000/G40s, the legendary HP quality
seemed to be scarce in the early-90's and apparently has only gotten worse
since then, especially in their PC and calculator products.
Cheers,
Dan
26 Jun
26 Jun
2:18 p.m.
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text
Size: 598 bytes
Desc: not available
Url :
http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/attachments/20020627/0e9f4b6b/at…
25 Jun
25 Jun
11:19 a.m.
On Tue, 25 Jun 2002, Sellam Ismail wrote:
Like, I know from experience that when I hear a hard
drive occasionally
buzz or give out a momentary high pitched squeal, it means the bearings
are failing and it will probably eventually crash (maybe not soon, but
eventually).
Anyone have any info on this?
Back in the "good old days" (15-20 years ago), a lot of the 5.25" full
height drives would make high pitched squeals, without being a sign of
impending failure. The strap that rubbed on the end of the spindle would
develod a small pit that would make noise. Pushing down on it would
silence it briefly. bending it very slightly sideways would silence it
for a long time, until it had worn another pit.
'course the same drives no longer make those noises (ever since I stopped
hearing those frequencies).
are failing and it will probably eventually crash
(maybe not soon, but
eventually).
ALL mechanical devices, including drives, will EVENTUALLY crash!
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
8063
days inactive
8064
days old
5 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
carlos_murillo＠epm.net.co -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dan＠ekoan.com -
foo＠siconic.com -
stanb＠dial.pipex.com