[Coco] Drive freezing / data reovery

[George's Coco Address]

  Over the years while using USED hard drives on my coco, I've learned "as 
did Gene Heskett" that when the unit fails to spin up, I could just simply 
jolt it with my hand . You know, just slap it and this will break the 
stiction in the bearings.  It is then that it becomes necessary to backup 
the darned thing.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Pepe"
>
> Hi Marty!
>
> Not to be pedantic, but hard drives aren't hermetically sealed (airtight)-
>
> They have holes blocked off with filters to equalize the air pressure
> inside the case. If not, when you took them on an airplane for example,
> the case would balloon out!
>
> I'm not sure if moisture can make it through the filter- my guess is
> probably not- but by design, they're not definitely not sealed.


  You are correct. There is a VENT that is also an air filter.


  When the device heats up, air expands and leaves the device. As it cools, 
air returns to the device. This includes ambient air that may have high 
humidity.

 Freezing this device will cause air to enter through the filter and when 
thawed, air will warm up and excape the device, driving moisture out of of 
this device.
 The humidiy in a freezer is VERY low. After all, everything is 
frozen....(Freeze Dried). So very little moisture would be introduce into 
the unit.

 It would be safe to assume that if we were to "FREEZE" a hard drive, it 
would be a good idea to place it in a "baggy" and leave it in the baggy 
until the cycle is done..... Just to be sure.

 However, if it doesn't spin up, then just slap it it on power up and run 
from there. It's ALWAYS worked for me.

 Just don't hit it with something hard. Only use your hand or something very 
soft. ..... Gotta keep those G-forces to a minimum.  Hit it in a direction 
that is parrallel to the platters so that the jolt will be such as the 
platter will be force to turn.

 When I first started to put a hard drive on my coco, I bought several used 
units to save money. The first four drives were junk(unscrupolus sellers on 
BBS systems). Once I got one that would work, it did well until it started 
the stiction trick and I learned to jolt it into motiviation.

 I don't know if freezing the thing would help.... Never tried it.
 As said earlier, when the drive is trashed wilh a defective cable, Freezing 
the the thing shouldn't do any good. I don't know how this thread got 
transmorged into stuck spindles from a bad cable but, I had to toss this 
into the mix.

 George