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Quantum Hard Drives - which models can be (reasonably) fixed?
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2023-02-03 20:49:28
Not sure whether to put this here or in the lounge...

Most of us know that old Quantum hard drives have rubber bumpers in the head assembly that go sticky and get the heads seized. Some Conner drives did as well, and I've recently heard that Toshiba drives are exhibiting the same problem now as well (laptop drives from the 90s specifically). Many drives can be revived by opening them up and either taping over the sticky rubber or replacing the bumper entirely. I have heard though that many Quantum drives put bumpers under the platters, which while possible to get to with special equipment, isn't possible to fix for most. Which models specifically do this though? It would be useful to have a list of which ones can be fixed, would be good for a wiki page or a page on my website. I recall one of them that did this was the ProDrive ELS or LPS models, can't remember which.

Share your experiences below!
Posted by: rollmastr on 2023-02-03 23:47:28
ProDrive LPS can be fixed easily, ProDrive ELS has another bumper under the platters.
Posted by: Paralel on 2023-02-04 00:28:28
I find Kapton to be the best choice of "tape".
Posted by: Nixontheknight on 2023-02-04 11:35:57
ProDrive LPS can be fixed easily, ProDrive ELS has another bumper under the platters.
I saw that when I took apart a ProDrive ELS that suffered head crash
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2023-02-04 11:40:21
So it is the ELS, good to know. Any others?
Posted by: volvo242gt on 2023-02-04 12:56:41
I wouldn't be surprised if later LPS, Maverick, Fireball, etc, drives also have those bumpers. The LPS170S and 270S drives I have look like the ELS drives externally, whereas my LPS240S drive with the fried controller board is the older design without the under platter bumper.
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2023-02-04 13:05:20
I heard somewhere that the first gen Bigfoot drives have them. It wouldn’t surprise me if all of their drives did.
Posted by: Vasily_A on 2023-02-18 10:34:53
А simple solution to the problem of a sticky bumper on a Quantum ProDrive ELS:

Since it’s impossible to remove and put back the magnetic disk at home,
I glued a soft stop on the back of the voice coil,
which prevents the heads from touching the damaged bumper.

I doubt that this will be enough for a very long time, but it's better than a completely faulty hdd.

This disc has been working for the first time in this millennium 🙂
2023-02-18_21-30-15.png
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2023-02-18 10:54:27
Ooh, smart! I'll give that a go if I ever find an ELS.
Posted by: volvo242gt on 2023-02-20 14:15:26
Should also work on the later LPS drives, like the LPS170S, LPS270S, etc...
Posted by: Franklinstein on 2025-07-17 18:58:20
A little bit of a necropost, but basically: if it's a 160~800MB Quantum drive, it probably has a bumper hidden under the platters and as such is extremely difficult to repair. 9/10 difficulty, except for the single platter drives which are 8/10 (you don't have to keep multiple platters in sync, but the one platter still needs to come out).
More specifically, it's the ProDrive ELS/Maverick/Lightning and 2.5" models that do this. The LPS does not (available up to 230MB), nor do the Trailblazer or Fireball (or any of the enterprise-class drives like the Empire, Atlas, Grand Prix, etc.), so they just have the bumper(s) near the voice coil which makes the job a 4/10 at worst on most of them.
The Trailblazer (later rebranded to Fireball TM to ride the coattails of its more successful sibling) and most of the Fireballs I've seen use synthetic rubber and so far I haven't seen any that have become sticky (and I actually used the synthetic bumper from a dead Trailblazer to fix an older drive).

For those curious, I'd class the CDC/Imprimis-legacy Seagate drives (usually named for a bird or fish) as 10/10 difficulty. I've not seen anything more difficult to put new bumpers into as those.

Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2025-07-18 06:40:48
I believe with the 2.5 drives that’s it’s only the original GoDrive that has the under platter bumper. The Daytona and Europa are only in the head mechanism.
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