Seagate Elite "reverse surging" noise

[Richard Pope]

Jules,
     That sounds like a spindle motor bearing that is going bad. Yes, it 
will get worst and the motor will fail to spin up at one point. I 
wouldn't use this drive for anything that is important. Remember these 
motors don't have a lot of torque.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!

On 11/14/2020 11:01 AM, Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote:
>
> I picked up a couple of 9GB Seagate Elite SCSI disks the other day 
> (model 410800N, 1995-vintage but 5.25" FH units).
>
> Both drives spin up, both pass r/w tests successfully. On one unit, 
> the spindle motor sound is constant. On the other, however, it makes a 
> sound that I can best describe as "reverse surging", where every 5 
> seconds or thereabouts there's a very brief lowering in tone before 
> the "normal" sound resumes.
>
> Anyone familiar with the Elite range know if "some of them just do 
> that", or if it's likely to be some form of fault (which may only get 
> worse)? I've never encountered a disk which does this before; my ear's 
> not detecting any kind of speed increase prior to the decrease (and I 
> don't know if that's what's really going on or not), but that's what 
> my brain wants to think is happening. However, if the speed really was 
> fluctuating to the point that I could hear it then I'm surprised that 
> I'm not getting read/write problems.
>
> cheers
>
> Jules
>
>