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frozen hd in q950?
Posted by: newbmac2k12 on 2013-02-04 05:06:00
I recently took out a q950 i hadnt played with in a few yrs. I got the machine 5-6 yrs and then the sys was fine and booted into sys 7.0 or so. Anyway, when i recently took it out to put a set of cards in it, i replaced the pram batt with a new one. I didnt think to boot the sys before the chgs, but I also pulled the floppy and the whole cage thing to removed the floppy and open it up to give the heads a thorough cleaning. Anyway I put it all back together and made sure to connect the cable securely and fire it up. It only boots to a white screen with the floppy icon. So if im not mistaken fine boot problem mb no hd found. So I went ahead and did the opt p-r thing to reset pram since i just did the battery and no chg. I even removed the nubus cards which i installed, same thing. Awhile back that some older hds can freeze or seize over time, if not used. Granted the last time i played w/it was when i got it yrs ago. The only time I tried to boot it was after the above mentioned chgs. I dont remember how noisy the hd was, but @ least on pcs when you boot them up, you @ least hear the whirrling of a motor and some activitiy i.e by the heads, to some extent. This hd i swear if I put my hand over it I dont feel any vibration nor hear anything out of it. Finally, Ill try later to use a different hd, one known to wrk, but has anyone else had this happen just by letting it sit for a few yrs? If this is the case this is the 1st i've ever had of a hd freezing up, heck I have old 520mb and even 40 mb hds laying around older than this and they wrked awhile back.

thanks in advance.
Posted by: beachycove on 2013-02-04 05:43:45
Google 'stiction'.
Posted by: Brooklyn on 2013-02-04 06:43:55
I've revived a couple of drives by dropping them on their side a couple inches up. Could be bad practice though so be careful.
Posted by: dougg3 on 2013-02-04 07:13:18
I had the same problem with my IIci's hard drive and fixed it by smacking it pretty hard with the handle of a big screwdriver right above the spindle, right after I powered it on. As soon as I hit it, it started making noises and it's been fine ever since.
Posted by: uniserver on 2013-02-04 08:17:58
I love it when hitting something, makes it work :-D

I'v never been so lucky, when my SCSI drives are dead, they are usually dead 🙁

Posted by: waynestewart on 2013-02-04 11:32:08
I have one hd that does that if I leave it for a few months. What I do is take it out of the case, plug it into a power supply and give it a sudden twist in the rotational direction. I have a replacement that I can use if need be but I have to use a specific drive and getting more isn't easy
Posted by: newbmac2k12 on 2013-02-05 03:58:47
Success, ok I googled it and yeah after I removed the hd and hit it a few times on all 4 sides w/a screwdriver. Then i put it back in and it started right up spinning and making its normal clicking and bootup into sys 7.1. One thing though now that ive done this since hds are supposed to be sealed and such, how would i keep this hd wrking for @ least a few yrs to come? Its not a bad hd, its a 500mb scsi, which is bigger than most hds i have laying around for old macs. Im assuming i should @ least use it weekly to help keep the drive from sticking since i had it stored away for yrs? Well thx for all the help.
Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-02-05 06:02:57
What you need to do is back it up ASAP and figure on it not working much longer. Everything beyond the chance to do the backup is gravy on top of that gift of chance.

Tapping all the sides is one thing, but dropping it from any of the sides is another. If you manage not to un-park the heads without damage that's great, if not, it's likely bad.

Lifting it up on an angle from front or back was the usual method back in the day. Thumping the heads loose without banging them around would be best.
Posted by: beachycove on 2013-02-05 06:22:35
Fasting and prayer might be your best bet, since there is no this-worldly cure for the drive. If it is any consolation, most of us are increasingly having these problems with our old scsi devices.

As for solutions, you have the following basic options: 1) obviously, there are replacement period drives available; 2) there is the option of finding a Nubus Jackhammer card or similar, which will run a slightly newer 68-pin scsi drive at much faster speed; 3) there are cheap adapters for 68 pin scsi and SCA (80 pin, server) drives, which again are newer drives, as well as plentiful and cheaper than some of these alternatives; 4) there is the custom "Power Monster" adapter on eBay, which will allow use of a solid state drive in the form of a CF card (there are similar Addonics ide to scsi converters); and 5) there are theoretical possibilities that avoid the need for a hard drive as such, like use of optical drives/ Jazz/ Zip, which would be interesting to use in conjunction with a RAM disk — assuming you have plenty of RAM.... So you have some options.

There are ongoing attempts in the background among some of our members to design and fabricate an adapter board, but I don't think they have gotten as far as we would all like.
Posted by: newbmac2k12 on 2013-02-07 03:18:14
Yeah, thought I would post an update. As for the drive itself I really dont have anything important, as a matter of fact all it had was a fresh install of sys 7.1 and now the hd is refusing to work everytime. In other words whenever I shut dwn the quadra and pwr it up whether it be an hr or less, i have to tap the side of the hd to get it spinning. If not then the boot up error. So yep ill definitely be looking into options, mb the scsi to ide sounds nice. I have a mess of old 520mb and up hds laying around for old pcs and they are fine.

thanks in advance.
Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-02-07 05:46:51
Shop carefully and you'll likely buy enough U-160 drives in the 15-20MB range to max out the 950 for less than a single SCSI converter. 😉

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