26 Aug
1998
26 Aug
'98
5:23 p.m.
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26 Aug
26 Aug
5:28 p.m.
Seth J. Morabito wrote:
(Normally, when I buy really heavy things they *roll*.
This thing
doesn't roll :)
You know those angle iron carts they use for bread carts and other similar
rack moving? They haold older tractor engines fine so if you can "borrow" one
and fit a 3/4 inch plywood (or a series of 2x6's) in the bottom it should
handle a lousy 148 lbs.
The hard drive is probably immobile to reduce possibility of head crash.
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5:42 p.m.
Bleh,
Well, I did something silly. I bid $26 on an RA81 (DEC) harddrive at
WeirdStuff Warehouse, and I won it.
Very silly.
This means, unfortunately, that I'm going to have
to move the damn thing.
I hope you live in town.
As I understand it, RA81's weigh 148 pounds. I
need some seriously
good tips about how to move the thing without a) killing myself and b)
destroying the drive :)
There are two interlocks to check - the white head lock lever on the HDA,
near the front, and the motor disengage cable. The cable is tricky, because,
IIRC, there are two different release mechanisms - a lever and a cable with
a pull handle that has an embedded brass bead that hangs up on a metal clip.
In either case, you don't want the belt under tension when you move the drive,
lest you wiggle the platters back and forth past the heads.
(Normally, when I buy really heavy things they *roll*.
This thing
doesn't roll :)
Use a steeper hill. It'll roll. ;-)
I have a couple of these things. Fortunately, I just got a pair of RA70's
that will prevent me from having to use an RA81 on a uVAXII. I can't bear
to throw away the RA81's, because they do work. Ah well... that problem will
take care of itself after enough power-on hours have elapsed.
ObFolklore: working customer support, I got a complaint that the RA81's at
a university were dying at a rate of 1 per month. Our customer complained
to DEC about the reliability but were told "those drives have a 50,000 MTBF".
They had enough drives that DEC predicted a failure every few weeks. Needless
to say, the university upgraded to a different drive as soon as possible.
27 Aug
27 Aug
8:36 a.m.
ObFolklore: working customer support, I got a
complaint that the RA81's at
a university were dying at a rate of 1 per month. Our customer complained
to DEC about the reliability but were told "those drives have a 50,000 MTBF".
They had enough drives that DEC predicted a failure every few weeks. Needless
to say, the university upgraded to a different drive as soon as possible.
ObSupposedFact: The reason for the failure was contamination on head 13 caused
by a vendor (without DEC's OK) changing the clue that held the pressure
equalization filter in place. The new glue had specs similar to the old
discontinued glue, with one difference: the new one would liquify and
flow at high temperatures. The DEC HDA's before the glue change
were pretty good. The ECO's released up until them were mostly
electronics changes. The contamination caused major failures on drives
just out of factory and it took a while for the analysis
to point out the glue.
Bill
who used to work for DEC and made a lot of OT swapping HDA's.
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26 Aug
26 Aug
6:21 p.m.
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9:18 p.m.
At 03:23 PM 26-08-98 -0700, Seth J. Morabito wrote:
Well, I did something silly. I bid $26 on an RA81
(DEC) harddrive at
WeirdStuff Warehouse, and I won it.
This means, unfortunately, that I'm going to have to move the damn thing.
As I understand it, RA81's weigh 148 pounds. I need some seriously
good tips about how to move the thing without a) killing myself and b)
destroying the drive :)
OK, it's not that hard to lock the heads down which is basically all you
need to do before moving the RA81. I should point out that I moved an 11/44
about 50Km with not only the heads not locked down on the RA81, but it
wasn't even secure in the rack. Every time we went right, the drive rolled
out, and going left make it slide (rapidly) back into the rack.
Surprisingly! the drive still worked when we arrived at work - we hadn't
planned to use it, so I hadn't taken the normal precautions...
Open the drive up (there are two vertical slots in the front of the drive
which release the catch). There's a white plastic lever, move to the locked
position. Close lid. Carry (this is very much a two person job). Reverse
process before using :-)
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
27 Aug
27 Aug
12:06 p.m.
[Help moving RA81?]
Hehehe... *bangs his on the lid* Good luck...
Oh, and LOCK THE FSCKING HEADS! There's a lever under the cover.
Stick a flathead screwdriver thru the center cooling hole on the front panel
and lift. It's a white handle, fairly obvious.
A dolly helps when moving these suckers...
-------
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6 comments
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participants (7)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com -
erd＠infinet.com -
H.Davies＠latrobe.edu.au -
pechter＠babel.ho.lucent.com -
rhblake＠bbtel.com -
sethm＠loomcom.com