Re: Blinking ? on disk

[Dana Collins]

> From: Gregg Eshelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (Vintage Macs)
> Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2001 19:55:15 -0700 (PDT)
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (Vintage Macs)
> Subject: Re: Blinking ? on disk

Greg sagely wrote in our last physics lesson:
 
> P.S. Do not hit the drive so firmly as to knock
> it out of your hand. That would be bad. ;-)

Yep-pers! My daughter proved this with a 100mg Quantum - this of course
reaffirmed another reality in physics: gravity ;-)

Enjoy your Mac,
Dana

P.S. dead HDs can be scavanged of their magnets to be used to repair
woofers, if you need them.


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Re: Blinking ? on disk

[Gregg Eshelman]

--- Alex Allee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> on 8/18/01 1:19 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 
> > Did those HD hum and make seeking noises when
> turned on?  If not,
> > slap hard on sides of the Macs few times asap when
> turned on.  If
> > that trick did work and hear HD spin up and make
> seeks and boots
> > fine, replace HDs.  That's signs of dying HD and
> sticking heads to
> > the platters is also worn HD.  This is caused by
> poor cooling on
> > those HD especially those that runs hot.
> 
> Sounds like good advice, but this should be a last
> resort. Check everything
> software wise and all the connections before you
> resort to beating your Macs. :)

If the drives aren't spinning at all, then try
a game of "Whack-a-Mole" with them. Remove
drive from Mac. Hold by edges firmly with thumb
and fingers of one hand. Two firm whacks with the
edge of your other palm, allowing the hand holding
the drive to rotate at the wrist, will usually
unstick the motor bearings. Plug drive back in and
see if it spins up. This is a good basic physics
demonstration on the principles of inertia. :)
(Inertia tries to hold the platters still while
the rest of the drive rotates around them.)

Old dead hard drives (that will still spin)
also work great for demonstrating the principles
of gyroscopic forces.

P.S. Do not hit the drive so firmly as to knock
it out of your hand. That would be bad. ;-)

=
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which is fruitful to an excess here, be so very barren in
the rest of the planets?" Bernard de Fontenelle, 1686
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Re: Blinking ? on disk

[rlf]

>From: Jim Raper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Blinking ? on disk
>
>Hello, y'all,
>
>Early season question for the list. I'm the person with the Mac lab of
>LCII's, 575's, and 580's. When the teacher whose room houses the lab
>went in a few days prior to the opening of school, she and a student
>turned a few (6-8) of the Macs on. All came up with the disk icon with
>the blinking ?. All but one that is. The lone LCII came up fine. I have
>7.5.5 on all.
>
>I have not gone in to do anything about this yet. Just wondered if
>anyone wants to suggest anything to look for when I do start trying my
>magic.
>
>She did power down and reboot a couple of machines but the blinking disk
>? icon came up again.
>If I remember correctly, that icon means "Can't find a usable system
>disk".
>
>I have access to Norton Utilities.
>
>The lab was running quite well with just a few printing problems when we
>shut down in the spring for end-of-school.
>
>Jim

Try starting up from an external volume like a CD or a ZIP and re-bless 
the System folder in the machines in question before going into deeper, 
time-consuming stuff. Just remove the Finder and System files from the 
System folder and then put them back in. Then restart from the machine. I 
have found this to work quite often when any of the 30 odd LC III's 
w/7.5.5 I have running in an elementary school lab do this ? thing. I 
have no idea why or how this problem arises though.

Bob F

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Re: Blinking ? on disk

[William Ahearn]

--- Jim Raper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello, y'all,
> 
> Early season question for the list. I'm the person
> with the Mac lab of
> LCII's, 575's, and 580's. When the teacher whose
> room houses the lab
> went in a few days prior to the opening of school,
> she and a student
> turned a few (6-8) of the Macs on. All came up with
> the disk icon with
> the blinking ?. All but one that is. The lone LCII
> came up fine. I have
> 7.5.5 on all.
> 
> I have not gone in to do anything about this yet.
> Just wondered if
> anyone wants to suggest anything to look for when I
> do start trying my
> magic.
> 
> She did power down and reboot a couple of machines
> but the blinking disk
> ? icon came up again.
> If I remember correctly, that icon means "Can't find
> a usable system
> disk".

Are they networked? And if so, how?

William 


=
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Re: Blinking ? on disk

[Alex Allee]

on 8/18/01 1:19 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> Did those HD hum and make seeking noises when turned on?  If not,
> slap hard on sides of the Macs few times asap when turned on.  If
> that trick did work and hear HD spin up and make seeks and boots
> fine, replace HDs.  That's signs of dying HD and sticking heads to
> the platters is also worn HD.  This is caused by poor cooling on
> those HD especially those that runs hot.

Sounds like good advice, but this should be a last resort. Check everything
software wise and all the connections before you resort to beating your
Macs. :)

-- 
Alex Allee   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
Visit EnigMac!  Updated 07/29/2001



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Re: Blinking ? on disk

[jpero]

> >Hello, y'all,
> >
> >Early season question for the list. I'm the person with the Mac lab of
> >LCII's, 575's, and 580's. When the teacher whose room houses the lab
> >went in a few days prior to the opening of school, she and a student
> >turned a few (6-8) of the Macs on. All came up with the disk icon with
> >the blinking ?. All but one that is. The lone LCII came up fine. I have
> >7.5.5 on all.
> >
> >I have not gone in to do anything about this yet. Just wondered if
> >anyone wants to suggest anything to look for when I do start trying my
> >magic.

Did those HD hum and make seeking noises when turned on?  If not,  
slap hard on sides of the Macs few times asap when turned on.  If 
that trick did work and hear HD spin up and make seeks and boots 
fine, replace HDs.  That's signs of dying HD and sticking heads to 
the platters is also worn HD.  This is caused by poor cooling on 
those HD especially those that runs hot.

Cheers,

Wizard

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Re: Blinking ? on disk

[the pickle]

At 19:03 -0500 on 18/08/01, Jim Raper wrote:

>Hello, y'all,
>
>Early season question for the list. I'm the person with the Mac lab of
>LCII's, 575's, and 580's. When the teacher whose room houses the lab
>went in a few days prior to the opening of school, she and a student
>turned a few (6-8) of the Macs on. All came up with the disk icon with
>the blinking ?. All but one that is. The lone LCII came up fine. I have
>7.5.5 on all.

Check the PRAM batteries; if the PRAM battery dies, the Startup Disk
control panel setting will be erased and the Mac can "forget" what its
System disk is.

Try holding cmd-opt-shift-delete to see if that can get them to recognise
the HD as the startup disk, assuming nothing happened to corrupt the drive.

p
_
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Re: Blinking ? on disk

[Marten van de Kraats]

This sounds like someone formatting the whole lot of them to get even 
with the teacher...
Try starting up from floppy (disk tools disk) and see wether there is 
still a system folder with all the goodies inside (or else wether the 
whole thing is just erased).

>Hello, y'all,
>
>Early season question for the list. I'm the person with the Mac lab of
>LCII's, 575's, and 580's. When the teacher whose room houses the lab
>went in a few days prior to the opening of school, she and a student
>turned a few (6-8) of the Macs on. All came up with the disk icon with
>the blinking ?. All but one that is. The lone LCII came up fine. I have
>7.5.5 on all.
>
>I have not gone in to do anything about this yet. Just wondered if
>anyone wants to suggest anything to look for when I do start trying my
>magic.
>
>She did power down and reboot a couple of machines but the blinking disk
>? icon came up again.
>If I remember correctly, that icon means "Can't find a usable system
>disk".
>
>I have access to Norton Utilities.
>
>The lab was running quite well with just a few printing problems when we
>shut down in the spring for end-of-school.
>
>Jim

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Blinking ? on disk

[Jim Raper]

Hello, y'all,

Early season question for the list. I'm the person with the Mac lab of
LCII's, 575's, and 580's. When the teacher whose room houses the lab
went in a few days prior to the opening of school, she and a student
turned a few (6-8) of the Macs on. All came up with the disk icon with
the blinking ?. All but one that is. The lone LCII came up fine. I have
7.5.5 on all.

I have not gone in to do anything about this yet. Just wondered if
anyone wants to suggest anything to look for when I do start trying my
magic.

She did power down and reboot a couple of machines but the blinking disk
? icon came up again.
If I remember correctly, that icon means "Can't find a usable system
disk".

I have access to Norton Utilities.

The lab was running quite well with just a few printing problems when we
shut down in the spring for end-of-school.

Jim


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