Suggestions How to Test No Spin Hard Drives?

[jfeng@my-deja.com]

On Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 3:31:54 AM UTC-8, tabb...@gmail.com wrote:

1956 IBM 350. fifty 24-inch (0.6 m) platters, total capacity (3.75 megabytes).

NT

More precisely, 5,000,000 Hollerith characters (the ones available on an IBM punch card). Each character was encoded using six bits. Since there were only 48 symbols defined, not all 64 of the six-bit combinations were possible.

 

On Thursday, 25 January 2018 14:52:41 UTC, jf...@my-deja.com wrote:

On Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 3:31:54 AM UTC-8, tabby wrote:
1956 IBM 350. fifty 24-inch (0.6 m) platters, total capacity (3.75 megabytes).

NT

More precisely, 5,000,000 Hollerith characters (the ones available on an IBM punch card). Each character was encoded using six bits. Since there were only 48 symbols defined, not all 64 of the six-bit combinations were possible.

I sure am grateful that computing has improved. Funny that such a HDD was the latest & greatest thing at the time.


NT

 

[Jon Elson]

jack4747@gmail.com wrote:

Il giorno mercoledĂŹ 24 gennaio 2018 18:18:36 UTC+1, KenO ha scritto:
Hi,

A while ago put a number of HDDs in storage.

Recently tried to use and noticed that some do Not spin up (all were
working when put in storage).

Had read that sometimes the heads will stick or other factors like lube
will cause the disk from spinning.

when the disk is powered off the heads are parked, and if the heads touch
the platters then you can throw the HD in the trash.

No fixed disk made since 1980 has had the heads lift off the platter.
Certainly, no modern 8", 5", 3" or whatever "Winchester" disk lifts the
heads. The heads are SUPER-smooth, and there is a lubricating film on the
platters that allows the heads to land on them without damage. (They may
have a dedicated landing area with no data written there.)

Jon

 

[Mike Coon]

In article <bd8b72ee-2cce-4d75-bf27-aa3d0f14a907@googlegroups.com>,
tabbypurr@gmail.com says...

I sure am grateful that computing has improved. Funny that such a HDD was the latest & greatest thing at the time.

My favourite when I worked for Univac was the FastRand (Remington Rand
vs Random; geddit?). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_FASTRAND

Pity no photo there -
https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/univac/fastrand.html

They were amazing beasts; quote: "No UNIVAC programmer who ever
encountered a FASTRAND is likely to forget it."

Mike.

 

Il giorno venerdĂŹ 26 gennaio 2018 00:33:20 UTC+1, Jon Elson ha scritto:

jack4747@gmail.com wrote:

Il giorno mercoledĂŹ 24 gennaio 2018 18:18:36 UTC+1, KenO ha scritto:
Hi,

A while ago put a number of HDDs in storage.

Recently tried to use and noticed that some do Not spin up (all were
working when put in storage).

Had read that sometimes the heads will stick or other factors like lube
will cause the disk from spinning.

when the disk is powered off the heads are parked, and if the heads touch
the platters then you can throw the HD in the trash.
No fixed disk made since 1980 has had the heads lift off the platter.
Certainly, no modern 8", 5", 3" or whatever "Winchester" disk lifts the
heads. The heads are SUPER-smooth, and there is a lubricating film on the
platters that allows the heads to land on them without damage. (They may
have a dedicated landing area with no data written there.)

Jon

No.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_read-and-write_head
Paragraph "Description"

When the HD is powered off, the heads are "parked" outside of the platters.

Bye Jack

 

Il giorno venerdĂŹ 26 gennaio 2018 11:20:42 UTC+1, jack...@gmail.com ha scritto:

Il giorno venerdĂŹ 26 gennaio 2018 00:33:20 UTC+1, Jon Elson ha scritto:
jack4747@gmail.com wrote:

Il giorno mercoledĂŹ 24 gennaio 2018 18:18:36 UTC+1, KenO ha scritto:
Hi,

A while ago put a number of HDDs in storage.

Recently tried to use and noticed that some do Not spin up (all were
working when put in storage).

Had read that sometimes the heads will stick or other factors like lube
will cause the disk from spinning.

when the disk is powered off the heads are parked, and if the heads touch
the platters then you can throw the HD in the trash.
No fixed disk made since 1980 has had the heads lift off the platter.
Certainly, no modern 8", 5", 3" or whatever "Winchester" disk lifts the
heads. The heads are SUPER-smooth, and there is a lubricating film on the
platters that allows the heads to land on them without damage. (They may
have a dedicated landing area with no data written there.)

Jon

No.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_read-and-write_head
Paragraph "Description"

When the HD is powered off, the heads are "parked" outside of the platters.

Bye Jack

Here more pictures (and explanations):

http://www.data-master.com/HeadCrash-explain-hard-disk-drive-fail_Q18.html

Bye Jack

 

On Thursday, 25 January 2018 23:33:20 UTC, Jon Elson wrote:

jack4747@gmail.com wrote:
Il giorno mercoledĂŹ 24 gennaio 2018 18:18:36 UTC+1, KenO ha scritto:

Hi,

A while ago put a number of HDDs in storage.

Recently tried to use and noticed that some do Not spin up (all were
working when put in storage).

Had read that sometimes the heads will stick or other factors like lube
will cause the disk from spinning.

when the disk is powered off the heads are parked, and if the heads touch
the platters then you can throw the HD in the trash.
No fixed disk made since 1980 has had the heads lift off the platter.
Certainly, no modern 8", 5", 3" or whatever "Winchester" disk lifts the
heads. The heads are SUPER-smooth, and there is a lubricating film on the
platters that allows the heads to land on them without damage. (They may
have a dedicated landing area with no data written there.)

Jon

I read about some laptop HDDs taking the head off-platter during the noughties to improve shock survival.


NT

 

On Friday, 26 January 2018 10:10:36 UTC, Mike Coon wrote:

In article <bd8b72ee-2cce-4d75-bf27-aa3d0f14a907@googlegroups.com>,
tabbypurr says...

I sure am grateful that computing has improved. Funny that such a HDD was the latest & greatest thing at the time.


My favourite when I worked for Univac was the FastRand (Remington Rand
vs Random; geddit?). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_FASTRAND

Pity no photo there -
https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/univac/fastrand.html

They were amazing beasts; quote: "No UNIVAC programmer who ever
encountered a FASTRAND is likely to forget it."

Mike.

"There were reported cases of drum bearing failures that caused the machine to tear itself apart and send the heavy drum crashing through walls."


NT

 

On Wednesday, January 24, 2018 at 12:18:36 PM UTC-5, KenO wrote:

Hi,

A while ago put a number of HDDs in storage.

Recently tried to use and noticed that some do Not spin up (all were working when put in storage).

Had read that sometimes the heads will stick or other factors like lube will cause the disk from spinning.

Did some searching and found

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/sci.electronics.repair/how$20test$20no$20spin$20hard$20drives%7Csort:date/sci.electronics.repair/WH68qfkAAfM/51WIPwZL8yMJ

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/sci.electronics.repair/how$20test$20no$20spin$20hard$20drives%7Csort:date/sci.electronics.repair/CDnXwrweST0/6_Sr72pRKUsJ

for specific HDDs but to date No general info on what to test.

Googled using how test "Hard drives" got a lot of hits but nothing helpful to no spin testing to date.

Then decided to try http://www.repairfaq.org and searched with how test "Hard drives" but only got "The Drexel mirror site of the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ is temporarily unavailable..."

Appreciate any suggestions

Ken

Grab it by the end by the connectors and smack the SIDE of the drive in the direction to force rotation. You don't want to pull the heads off if they're only lightly stuck.

Also, sometimes when the bearings are that tight they seize up. This used to happen to the drum motor on VCRs sometimes.

But then before you smack anything try cold and heat of course. Heatwise it can stand up to maybe 140C or so. That would loosen up the grease and many ovens go that low. And sometimes, for reasons I haven't quite figured out completely, cold works. They can stand being in the freezer.

Once it spins, copy everything worth a shit on it of course. You might only get one chance.

 

[KenO]

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions.

Forgot to mention that all the HDDs were stored in cool (not freezing) conditions.

Will try some heat tests 1st.

Ken

 

[Dave Platt]

In article <3682e290-5027-493f-beae-0e5aa7702d3c@googlegroups.com>,
<tabbypurr@gmail.com> wrote:

They were amazing beasts; quote: "No UNIVAC programmer who ever
encountered a FASTRAND is likely to forget it."

Mike.

"There were reported cases of drum bearing failures that caused the machine to tear itself apart and send the
heavy drum crashing through walls."

While in high school (roughly 1970) I did some summer work at the
district's Instructional Computer Center, coding some graphics-based
teaching software which ran on the district's Philco 102 mainframe.
It had huge disk drives, of the sort where the platter assemblies were
dropped into the drive-and-heads chassis through an openable lid (no
sealed drive assembly).

The story went that one evening, the techs were doing some maintenance
on the system, and had one drive's cover opened while the drive was
still powered up and spinning. Something happened (allegedly one of
the techs was a cigar smoker(!) and a chunk of ash fell off his cigar
and was sucked into the drive), something seized up, and the whole
platter assembly snapped out of the drive and flew across the room and
hit a door frame. Fortunately nobody was in the way and there were no
injuries.

I don't know if this _truly_ occurred but it was a good cautionary
tale, warning that (1) working on high-power rotating assemblies
without safety covers was a bad idea, and (2) smoking tobacco could be
bad for your health.

I have no reason to believe that this incident was the inspiration
behind the movie "Master of the Flying Guillotine"... damn it. It
really should have been.

 

[Mike Coon]

In article <u7tsje-gkv.ln1@coop.radagast.org>, dplatt@coop.radagast.org
says...

I don't know if this _truly_ occurred but it was a good cautionary
tale, warning that (1) working on high-power rotating assemblies
without safety covers was a bad idea, and (2) smoking tobacco could be
bad for your health.

I have no reason to believe that this incident was the inspiration
behind the movie "Master of the Flying Guillotine"... damn it. It
really should have been.

Or of the Bond movie's OddJob?

Mike.