Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on February 07, 2005 11:41 PM
Many old drives suffer from a phenomenon known as "stiction". The lubricant built into the coating of the platter surfaces becomes, after considerable time, sticky instead of slick. when the drive is warm then spins down and sits til cool it can cause the medium and the head to stick togehter tightly enough to prevent the drive motor from spinning the platter. Manually giving the drive a spin (around the axis of rotation of the spindle) can sometimes break it loose, due to the inertia of the rotating platter/spindle mechanism. I've had it work many times.
I've also had the read/write head get ripped off the actuator arm, too!
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sticky drives
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on February 07, 2005 11:41 PMI've also had the read/write head get ripped off the actuator arm, too!
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