a day ago
- Many old Quantum and Conner SCSI hard drives from the 1990s fail because rubber bumpers disintegrate into sticky goo, preventing the head from moving.
- The head gets stuck in the parked position; the drive spins up but cannot pass its seek test and spins back down.
- Opening old hard drives is possible in a clean environment; they are remarkably tolerant of dust exposure.
- A temporary fix for Quantum drives involves manually moving the head after the platters spin up, allowing the drive to complete its startup sequence.
- Conner drives may require more precise timing or a physical barrier (like Kapton tape) to prevent the head from resticking.
- Some drives have inaccessible bumpers under the platters, making replacement difficult; eBay offers plastic inserts as a solution.
- Data recovery is successful if the head is merely stuck and no catastrophic failure (e.g., head crash) has occurred.
- The author successfully recovered long-lost software from a Conner drive using these methods.
- Community contributions include ROM dumps, 3D-printed parts, and further insights into the issue.