No auto-park for IBM 120MB ESDI HDD?

[neosunrise]

Just curious that I have never noticed any clicking sound when powering off my IBM P70 which has an IBM 120MB ESDI HDD (I believe its P/N is 6128260). I usually have to run the park utility on my IBM PC XT to park its MFM HDD but that utility did not work on P70. How can I park the heads? I have shot a video that recorded the entire process from powering it on to turning it off. Can anybody have a look? Please turn on subtitle for the video so you can see my annotations.

Also I notice some noise from the HDD at the beginning of RAM test - is that normal? The hdd sometimes makes tiny buzzing noise when at idle. Don't know if it indicates any issues. CHKDSK did not show any bad sectors, nor did I have any issues with it.

 

[Stone]

Parking is really only useful when you're physically moving the equipment or expecting a major earthquake.

 

[Chuck(G)]

In all likelihood, the P70 hard disk "parks" automatically when power is removed. This may be nothing more than lifiting the heads of the platters. Manual parking was pretty much obsolete by the time ESDI came along.

 

[neosunrise]

Parking is really only useful when you're physically moving the equipment or expecting a major earthquake.

I understand that but in case I need to ship it, I believe it’s necessary to park.

 

[neosunrise]

In all likelihood, the P70 hard disk "parks" automatically when power is removed. This may be nothing more than lifiting the heads of the platters. Manual parking was pretty much obsolete by the time ESDI came along.

I do have another 30MB IBM ESDI hdd and I tried it on the same computer. It did make a clicking sound when it was powered off. Also, I don’t know if the noise at the beginning of the ram test is normal or not. The other 30MB hdd did not make this noise.

 

[Chuck(G)]

On some drives, the click is nothing more than a auto spindle lock/brake, to keep the disk from spinning when not in operation.

 

[neosunrise]

On some drives, the click is nothing more than a auto spindle lock/brake, to keep the disk from spinning when not in operation.

I think this starts to make sense to me. I was expecting something like moving the heads completely out of the platters so they have a dedicated "parking spot", just like modern HDDs. But, it could also be as simple as moving the heads to the innermost cylinder like we do to the MFM drives. I don't know but if that's the case, then it won't make any clicking noise. I was searching on the internet but did not find any datasheet/manual for these IBM ESDI HDD's

 

[Chuck(G)]

It's possible that the PS/2 tech reference has some data on these drives. Generally, I don't pay much attention to the PS/2 models as they and their peripherals are pretty much sui generis, the notable exceptions being the keyboard and mouse.