> Rather than dropping it - which IS one way of making it work again, > but a > last resort I'd suggest this instead: > > - First check that it's not actually spinning up when you apply > power. > Assuming it's not: > - Power down again, then grip the drive on the long edge between > thumb & > fingers, and twist it back & forth vigorously a couple of times. > This should > be enough to undo any stiction which is preventing the drive from > spinning > up. > - Power up again as soon as you've put the drive back down... > > Assuming it spins up this time, then you're away - but beware, I'd > consider > the drive to be scrap from that point onwards. I once managed to > keep an > ailing drive going for nearly 6 months using that technique (the > machine was > left on 24/7; except when Windows decided to shut the drive down due > to > inactivity), but when it did die, it went most spectacularly - when > the > bearings finally failed completely. At least the Aurora is not my main machine, it just gets used to test software on a QDOS ROM from time to time really.
So in that sense, even if the drive was lost completely, it's not the end of the world, as the boot and extensions can reside on the romdisq and programs can be run from floppy or (slowly) via Sernet for the testing purposes. Anyway, small capacity 2.5 inch HDs don't cost much as second user hardware (I do have one lying around somewhere I could press into service). This rather "brute force" approach to fixing things reminds me of what we used to do in a past job to fix broken CD players. For a while (until it went bust) I worked for a firm which recycled "brown goods" and we often resorted to some unofficial maintenance methods to resuscitate seemingly dead bits. We'd bring dead motors in the portable CD players back to life by putting a 9volt battery across the 3-4.5 volt motors for a few seconds. It was a bit of a juggling act - apply the 9 volts long enough to get it going without burning out the motor coils. I live in hope that shouting loud enough at a hard disk will initimidate it into waking up ;-) -- Dilwyn Jones _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
