From: bram@fangorn.hacktic.nl (Bram Smits)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Hard Disks: Toss them out when they break?
Date: 26 Jan 93 04:40:22 GMT
Organization: Fangorn System
NewsSoftware: Rnf 0.73b

garland@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu writes:

>I have about a dozen small computers in my labgroup, which we leave on 24 hours

<cut>

>The hard disks tend to last about three years before they start to go bad.
>Historically, we've just tossed them out and replaced them. We've not bothered
>with doing a low-level format or otherwise trying to restore them to health,
>the rationale being that the replacement costs are low and extracting another
>six months or so of life isn't worth the bother. 
>
>I'd like to know if this is a sensible policy? What actually goes bad in the

Depends.... If you don't give a damn about the money, well, why don't you 
replace the entire computer ?? :-)

OK,  back to normal : No, it isn't a sensible policy. Due to wear and tear
and so, after a couple of years the heads aren't in the exact same position
anymore as when you started using the drive, and same goes for the plates. 
So the blocks of data aren't where the drive 
expects them anymore. So reformatting the drives puts the blocks and the heads
back 'in sync', and you should be able to use the drive for another while 
So yes, it pays to reformat the drives every couple of years, when they 
go bad. OK, that was the easy part. At least you can try.... 

Now, of course it does happen that drives really go bad. You notice soon 
enough : Drives that don't respond anymore (electronics gone bad), make 
funny noises, don't make noise anymore (i.e. motor(s) gone dead), heads 
don't move anymore (you can hear that, the 'ticking' noise when accessing 
the drive is gone), entire amounts of data gone (one or more heads gone 
bad, or 'head channels' in the electronics gone bad ), etc.... etc... 
etc.... Let me put it this way : You know a dead drive when you encounter 
one. With the modern, reliable drives the chances of the mechanical or 
electronical parts going bad are almost equal. So (if you have someone who 
likes doing that kind of stuff) you could save a bunch of old drives, and 
when you have a couple of drives (of equal type off course) you can try to 
match good boards with good mechanical units, and voila, you have (a) 
working drive(s).... 

I know of a lot of people who do it that way, and they usually have LOTS of
BIG hard drives in their computers..... 

I know, for an organisation that kind of hobbying is out of the question,
but for private use those 'reconditioned' drives should be good for another
couple of years..... Heck, if you just throw them out, can't you send them
to me ?? Then I could try to fix'em up and put them in my own machines. 
I wouldn't mind paying the postage, as long as it are drives of reasonable 
size (MB-wise.... ) Just Email to arrange something..... 

>should just reformat them every few years and keep on using them? I've seen
>software adverstised that claims that we should do this, but I've no idea how
>good it really works?  I'd sure appreciate any knowledgable advice. Thanks.

That is probably about LowLevel formatting ?? For most drives you can do that 
yourself, with normal tools (debug, firmware lowlevel routines...). Of course
there is some software that will make that a lot easier.... I have some good 
experience with CALIBRAT (I believe that comes with Norton Utils) and 
SpeedStor (you can find their add in Byte). That got a bunch of 'unreliable'
drives back in working order.....  Just be very carefull with IDE 
drives, as lowleveling those without the proper software is very likely to 
trash them. It can be done, but you need some very special software... You 
should contact the manufacturer of that specific IDE drive for more info....


Cya,

    v__   
  <"___\____     Bram 'mouser' Smits.

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