Posted by NunYa Bidness on 11/15/80 11:33

On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 17:31:46 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch"
<spamfree@nobody.invalid> Gave us:

>Mmmm. I've had hard drives freeze up. Some could be brought to life
>with CPR (tap them, not too gently or too hard, with the handle of a
>screwdriver). One or two never came back to life.
>
>Admittedly, these were FM and MFM drives of about 20 to 40 MB each
>(yes, megabytes). Perhaps not the latest technology today...
>
>However, there are other failure modes available for an enterprising
>hard drive.
>
>Gino

There is a big difference between a failing stepper motor and what is
inferred by the remark "freezing up". As I recall, there were no hard
drives that did not contain dry bearings... ie nothing to seize. If
said bearing had a problem to the extent that the drive platter would
seize up, the slop would have crashed such a drive long before any
such seizure ever took place.

I had several MFM drives of various sizes, and even still have a
Tandon 10MB, the original XT HD. There are no "FM" drives to my
knowledge, as it is not an interface that ever existed.

MFM RLL ESDI SCSI were some of the original small form factor
methods available. The big mainframe drives were originally termed
"winchester" drives, but they had a 12" form factor. They didn't
freeze up either.

A failed drive spindle motor means the platter will not be driven.
It does NOT mean that the platter has "frozen". In other words, it is
an electrical, not mechanical failure. So at best, the guy used the
wrong term.

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