Stiction

[Dave McGuire]

On Dec 8, 2006, at 1:43 PM, Marvin Johnston wrote:
> I've read several replies indicating that the drive needs to be  
> taken apart.
> People have also advocated just "hitting" the drive to break the  
> stiction.
>
> Holding the drive and giving it a quick twist around the spindle  
> axis has always
> worked for me and avoids potential problems with disassembly or  
> damage.
>
> Has anyone seen stiction on the IDE or later drives? The only  
> stiction I've seen
> has always been on the 5 1/4" MFM/RLL type drives, and probably  
> ESDI/SCSI/SASI
> as well although my experience is limited on those drives.
>
> Something else I've noticed is that if a drive has stiction, that  
> stiction will
> return after the drive sets for a while again. Anyone know what  
> actually causes
> stiction?

   The story I heard "back in the day" (which was at work, from a  
service bulletin of some sort, so I treat it with some credibility)  
is that designers chose the spindle lubricant unwisely in some models  
of drives, and it spun out onto the platters a bit and gummed up.

         -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Cape Coral, FL