Jorg
Veteran Member
Its spinning allright.. but track 0 bad (and some others...)
Can't get me to throw it away though.. any ideas?
Can't get me to throw it away though.. any ideas?
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What to do with a defect ST-412 drive
- Thread starter Jorg
- Start date
Micom 2000
Veteran Member
Re: What to do with a defect ST-412 drive
You could get an old copy of Disk Manager or Spin-rite and just mark them as defective. Not sure if you would lose all the data on the drive tho.
Lawrence
Jorg said:
You could get an old copy of Disk Manager or Spin-rite and just mark them as defective. Not sure if you would lose all the data on the drive tho.
Lawrence
Jorg
Veteran Member
Re: What to do with a defect ST-412 drive
Wasn't able to find Spin-rite (I had it somewhere)- but, as far as I thought- if track 0 is bad, the story is over. Or am I wrong?
Micom 2000 said:
Wasn't able to find Spin-rite (I had it somewhere)- but, as far as I thought- if track 0 is bad, the story is over. Or am I wrong?
Terry Yager
Veteran Member
Re: What to do with a defect ST-412 drive
I have a couple of older copies of SpinRite, but I think you're correct, if track 0 is bad, even SpinRite won't help it.
--T
Jorg said:
I have a couple of older copies of SpinRite, but I think you're correct, if track 0 is bad, even SpinRite won't help it.
--T
carlsson
Veteran Member
If nothing else, you can keep it in case you some day need a device only to put load on the power supply (a'la modern ATX equipment). Or maybe a doorstop? It appears to physically be large enough that if you gut out the interior, you may be able to fit a tiny form factor PC inside the drive on its own.. :wink:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/obsoST506-c.htmlPCGuide.com said:
Jorg
Veteran Member
Just for you all 
machine
Experienced Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2005
- Messages
- 56
If track 0 is bad then the drive is no longer usable. But, you might be able to move the track 0 position. You can alter the position of the stop, then reformat with primary format software so that you get a whole new formatted disk. Effectively you have moved track 0 a millimeter or so. You will lose all data of course.
Your other method is look for another drive and get it's disk. Seagate made zillions of those drives, there's bound to be some loose ones around somewhere.
The ST412 finds tracks by stepping the head, so reformatting all the tracks shouldn't be a problem.
The other thing is that opening a drive's cover while not in a clean room is not as bad for the drive as we are told. If you are very clean with everything it shouldn't be a problem. I have opened up many disks and repaired them outside of a clean room.
I even horrified a fellow engineer one time when I opened up a disk and then ran formatting software on it. I showed him that no errors resulted.
Something else you should look for is dust accumulation under the disk motor, it really effects the drive's speed and any format will go bad if the speed is incorrect.
Your other method is look for another drive and get it's disk. Seagate made zillions of those drives, there's bound to be some loose ones around somewhere.
The ST412 finds tracks by stepping the head, so reformatting all the tracks shouldn't be a problem.
The other thing is that opening a drive's cover while not in a clean room is not as bad for the drive as we are told. If you are very clean with everything it shouldn't be a problem. I have opened up many disks and repaired them outside of a clean room.
I even horrified a fellow engineer one time when I opened up a disk and then ran formatting software on it. I showed him that no errors resulted.
Something else you should look for is dust accumulation under the disk motor, it really effects the drive's speed and any format will go bad if the speed is incorrect.
Slightly off topic here, but that very hard drive was listed on our official price sheet for IBM PC replacement parts, as late as 1993. The price: $1,000. I kid you not. And there it sat, gathering dust on the shelf. Won't be there today though, as the dealership closed up years ago, but I bet it was still there long after I left LOL.
Cheers
Cheers
Jorg
Veteran Member
elbowgeek said:
Jorg
Veteran Member
machine said:
I would like to try that.
is it this copper screw in the middle of the picture?
machine
Experienced Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2005
- Messages
- 56
Yes, that's it. It's the track zero detector. It's optical and simply senses when the light beam has been intersected. You really want to move the track zero position deeper into the center of the disk's platter, NOT further out. It only needs to move a millimeter, about 1/25 inch. But before you do that make sure you have PRIMARY formatting software... that's the software that writes to the disk and formats tracks. But even before you attempt moving track zero, make sure the speed is correct. There is software around to do this. When I mentioned about dust... really, it doesn't take much dust to alter the speed of the disk... I was surprised when I first saw how little dust there was there. If the disk speed is low then any track will not format correctly as the first part of the track gets overwritten by the last portion of the track resulting in bad track zero error message.
Any other questions just private message me again.
Any other questions just private message me again.
Jorg
Veteran Member
I found something interesting.
If you look at the picture above you might see the sensor is actually shifted. It rest on the copper screw- but it should be level with it!
Gonna see if that makes any difference.
If you look at the picture above you might see the sensor is actually shifted. It rest on the copper screw- but it should be level with it!
Gonna see if that makes any difference.
Jorg
Veteran Member
machine said:
Well, nothing to lose..
I am using Ontrack Diskmanager 5.11 and Spinrite II.
machine
Experienced Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2005
- Messages
- 56
During the primary format there may be errors reported. Previous adjacent tracks may be interfering with the read following the write during the format.
I will suggest something radical here. Degauss the disk surface top and bottom. Then do the primary (low-level) format.
Degaussing means to de-magnetize with a degaussing wand. Radio Shack has them (or used to). Any 60 or 50 cycles low level source of magnetism should do it. You can't degauss with a magnet.
You will need to remove the disk to degauss on the lower surface.
Don't worry about handling the disks or exposing them to air, but use new plastic gloves to handle anything.
I will suggest something radical here. Degauss the disk surface top and bottom. Then do the primary (low-level) format.
Degaussing means to de-magnetize with a degaussing wand. Radio Shack has them (or used to). Any 60 or 50 cycles low level source of magnetism should do it. You can't degauss with a magnet.
You will need to remove the disk to degauss on the lower surface.
Don't worry about handling the disks or exposing them to air, but use new plastic gloves to handle anything.
Jorg
Veteran Member
hehe, never give up!
I didn't know that was possible.
I did not have the time yet to go on with it, and won't have it this weekend, as I need to pick up another nice 5160- this one even has an EGA card :D
I didn't know that was possible.
I did not have the time yet to go on with it, and won't have it this weekend, as I need to pick up another nice 5160- this one even has an EGA card :D
machine
Experienced Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2005
- Messages
- 56
Be careful if you are going to degauss (de-magnetize) the disk. High energy levels from the degausser might do damage. Just try the degausser from a distance at first, then format and see if you continue to get errors. If you get errors, then move a bit closer with the degausser and then format again. To do a trial and error system like this you don't need to format the entire disk, just the first few tracks to see if you get errors.
Has anyone successfully revived an ST-412 by using the procedure
in this thread ? I have one that appears to be dead, gives a Track 00 error during low level format. Apparently moving the set screw will alter the
position of Track 00 on the disk to a usable area. Running a low level
format is also required after moving the set screw.
in this thread ? I have one that appears to be dead, gives a Track 00 error during low level format. Apparently moving the set screw will alter the
position of Track 00 on the disk to a usable area. Running a low level
format is also required after moving the set screw.
compu_85
Experienced Member
I have an ST-506 drive, in my Apple Profile. It is very very noizy, and I would like to try and oil the motor. Does anyone know how to get at the bearings?
BTW, you CANNOT low level format a drive in a ProFile... The drive uses a propritary Apple controller, and it's firmware doesn't support doing a low level format. You have to change the ROMs, then hook it to an Apple ///, and use very hard to find software.
-Jason
BTW, you CANNOT low level format a drive in a ProFile... The drive uses a propritary Apple controller, and it's firmware doesn't support doing a low level format. You have to change the ROMs, then hook it to an Apple ///, and use very hard to find software.
-Jason
billdeg
Technician
I have an ST-225 with same issue. I usually don't work too long on them after the track 00 is bad. 1703 error when you attempt to low level format I believe.
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