arl: faqs: harddisc: problems

arl: faqs: harddisc: problems
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Last updated 20031208T1630

Common problems with harddisc drives
Now mainly hardware problems listed.
These are the problems I have encountered during the years; have been playing with harddisc drives around 20 years, have been using larger (physically) and smaller models, checked internals, even collecting some parts like heads (maybe releasing some pictures if I get larger amount of ppl asking to create pages .. still need better digicam).

Physical damages

Head crashes are quite uncommon nowadays. People tend to say head crash when drive keeps weird noise, even though the problem usually is something else. There existed large (IBM etc.) drives which had glass plates - head crash meant the drive contained lots of glass dust.

Stepper motor problems (when the drive has one) are usual cause for noise. Usually somehow dislocated so that the drive may not locate data. Really old drives may be fixed by releasing the stepper motor bolts and trying to find another angle for stpper motor, naturally bolts must be tighten.

Dropping the drive. Some drives are really sensitive, there used to be old drives which needed to be mechanically locked when moved/transferred, but also have seen drives dropped over 1 meter to concrete (scrap yard) and those old SMD drives were still working.

Electrical damages

Software problems
BIOS problems in PC machines are nowadays common problem with IDE/ATA harddiscs. Older PC machines just cannot handle big drives. The same situation was in MFM drive era, then the limit was something like 32 MB (huge drive size! correct me if I remember falsely). For IDE/ATA problems upgrade may be the only solution, if buying other controller card does not help (controller card may cost more than a new motherboard).