Hello, On Tue, 9 Sep 2003 09:33:26 +0800 (PHT) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> The particular problem this remedy addresses is called "stiction", and > used to endemic in Seagate drives, in particular. That is, the > lubricant on the voice-coil motor (or stepper motor) would partially > harden, glueing the head assembly in its retracted position. Knocking Stiction is a condition where the recording head is stuck to the recording surface inside the hard disk. It has nothing to do with lubrication in the voice-coil or in the stepper motor. Stiction is similar to what happens when you store glasses (i.e. drinking glass) stacked one on top of another in your cupboards. You will find that after a long time, you need to use force to separate the glasses. This is due to the smooth surfaces between the glasses. Stiction occurs in drives manufactured by all vendors. However, stiction was a problem with 5.25 inch HD in the past. Since then, reported problem rates due to this problem is very low. Among the things that Seagate did to combat this problem are : - chemically roughen the disk surfaces. All media go through an additional etching stage, where microscopic ridges are introduced. - all media are coated with an additional layer of lubricant to allow the heads to simply glide over the surface and minimize adhesion. - environmental filters inside the drive housing designed to trap condensation and airborne pollutants. When a spinning drive inside a cold room is turned off, the difference between the ambiant cool air in the room and the heat of the computer enclosure (including the drive itself) is enough to cause condensation inside the hard disk. The HDA (hard disk assembly) is sealed, but it is not in vacuum. You need air inside the HDA to dissipate heat and allow the heads to fly. - introduced new firmware, that gently shakes the recording heads on startup. - dedicated landing zones on the recording surface, near the spindle shaft. The landing zones have no data on them, this allow the firmware move described previously to safely shake the head without fear of losing data. - improvements in the composition of the recording heads and media surfaces. In one of our technical meetings in the early 80's, it was noted that the stiction problem occured more in the Asia, Middle East and African regions. The speaker promptly pointed out that the main cause was that computers in Europe and in the Americas are rarely turned off, even on weekends and holidays. REgards, Ricardo B. Gonzalez [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.hypertech.com.ph www.linxtech.net Snail Mail : 3971 Yague St. Bgy Sta Cruz, Makati City, Philippines Voice : 632-896-8986 Fax : 632-896-8915 "In a world without fences, who needs Gates" -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
