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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

2828.0. "Seagate Hard Disk Question" by LOWLIF::DAVIS (That's not a BUG, it's a FEATURE!) Sun Aug 13 1989 06:00

I put a Seagate ST-296N hard disk on my system a month ago and notice that
every minute or so the heads move back and forth even if I'm not accessing
the disk.  I'm curious to know if the drive does this or is AmigaDOS what
causes it.

Either way, does anyone know why it does it?  My only hunch is that the
drive's logic does it so that the arm doesn't get stuck in one place from
not being moved for a long time.  Good guess or not?

...richard
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2828.1It's hard finding a good parking space...EXPRES::HAXTONSun Aug 13 1989 17:5715
    
 Richard,
    
    Could it be PARKING the Heads after a certain period of inactivity?  
    
      I do recall from when I installed my ST225 that the Hard Drive Prep
    program that came with the 2000HD asked whether I wanted the heads
    parked after a certain period of inactivity on the disk.
    
      Don't know if this might be happening with your ST-296N but you may
    want to check it out.  I'm not exactly sure how you would go about
    doing that though...any ideas or am I barking up the wrong tree.
    
                                             Kevin
    
2828.2Not sure on ST296N but might be...WJG::GUINEAUOpening the doors of PerceptionMon Aug 14 1989 12:3913
Sounds like a thermal cal.

Newer technologies recognize the need to recalibrate the servo over changing
temperature.

What happens is the drive will calibrate itself on power up, then after a few
seconds calibrate itself again by doing some seeks. It will then wait a little
longer and do it again, then longer the next time etc.

So you may hear it at 1 second, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 2 minutes etc. after
power up until it settless in on every 5 minutes or something.

John
2828.3STOUT::MCAFEESteve McAfeeMon Aug 14 1989 16:295
    Interesting.  I've heard my Quantum doing something every now and
    then also.  I always wondered what was going on.  I thought maybe
    it was doing something with its 64K byte cache :-).
    
    - steve
2828.4Any opinions?KYOA::MIANOMad Mike's Mythical MiracleMon Jan 15 1990 22:195
Does anyone have any comments or experiences with this ST296N 
drive they'd like to share.  These drives seem to be becoming 
relatively inexpensive right now.

John
2828.5CSC32::J_PARSONSGeorge Stark: Not A Very Nice GuyTue Jan 16 1990 00:423
    I've had my ST296N drive for well over a year now with zero problems.
    It makes an occasional noise which seems pretty scary but it has never
    given me any trouble. 
2828.6LODGE::LENDavid M. LenTue Jan 16 1990 00:485
    I have had my ST-296N + Microbotics Hardframe combination since last
    March.  So far no problems.  I have to admit I was pretty worried about
    having problems though.  Right after I got the drive there was all this
    talk on USENET about stiction problems. 
                   
2828.7Unhappy ex-Segate customerTLE::RMEYERSRandy MeyersTue Jan 16 1990 14:235
I lost an ST-157N drive to the stiction problem after only 14 months of
use.  Seagate said that they would repair it (replace the media) if I
sent it to them with $300 and would wait two months for it to be fixed.

I'm not that fond of Seagate.
2828.8TALLIS::MCAFEESteve McAfeeTue Jan 16 1990 18:4111
    
    Well, in mid-November my Quantum 40S developed what I believe was a stiction
    problem.  It was still under a 1 year warranty so after some initial hassle,
    I sent it back for repairs.  Took seven weeks, but no charge, and it seems
    to be working fine.  I think I probably lost 3 weeks total due to
    thanksgiving, christmas and new years.  Between christmas and new years
    all I got was an answering machine.  Even though they took quite a while
    at least it didn't cost me anything and I got caught up on a lot of
    reading :-).
    
    - steve