[Wolves] New install options

[Andy Wootton]

Mark Ellse wrote:

>
> One thing that is worth trying is to heat up the hard disk gently - 
> putting on a warm radiator or similar - until it is at its normal 
> operating temperature. It's the heating and cooling that generaly 
> cause electronic or mechanical failure, switching them on or off. The 
> small amount of movement with heating up can free a motor that is 
> reluctant to start.
>
> Is the drive spinning up to speed - can you hear it with an ear to the 
> case? Sometimes you can get a reluctant hard disk to get going by 
> rotating it sharply about an axis through the centre of the disk with 
> the power on, with and without the heating up described.
>
> Mark
>
The similarity to my old central heating pump is quite uncanny.

Mark is absolutely right though. I used to look after a VAX cluster with 
about 20 disks. It ran perfectly for years then everything had to be 
shut down for a weekend for some electrical work to take place. When the 
power came back on, 3 of the disks had seized up. I think the enineer 
said that the bearings wear unevenly and flats develop. As long as they 
keep moving they are fine but if they stop they need an input of 
external energy to get them moving again. On that occasion I think the 
method of last resource for at least one of the disks was a hammer. 
These disks were about fifteen inches in diameter though.

Woo