25 Nov
2017
25 Nov
'17
1:57 a.m.
The Disks that stick in my memory where 4Gb scsi drives from IBM, I forget
the model number - this would have been 1996-ish.
They had been lubricated with the wrong viscosity oil. Over time the oil
would flood out over the top platter, though this didn't seem to stop them
working.
However when you powered them down they would not spin up again as the
heads would stick to the platter. They also made a horrific chattering noise
as they tried to start. The IBM service engineer's solution was to thump
them with the but of his screwdriver and they would (usually) spin up!
We swapped them out pretty sharpish after that. We had dozens attached
to a pair of SGI Origins running back-to-back.
Thankfully most disks lived long enough to be copied and those that didn't
proved the worth of the DLT tapes.
-Steve