Date   : Wed, 21 Mar 1984 16:07:12-PST (Wed)
From   : hplabs!hpda!fortune!burton@Ucb-Vax.ARPA
Subject: Re: disk crashes - (nf)

#R:sri-arpa:-1765700:fortune:25500009:000:910
fortune!burton    Mar 21 13:05:00 1984


It very well can be either drive or media.  Early DS drives, including
Shugart 850's suffered from excessive force when heads were loaded on
the media, for read or write opration.  The "tap tap" test showed that
head force could indeed damage media.  If you can take your drives out
from the enclosure, see if the bottom head is fixed or is on a movable
arm.  If the latter, you have a "tri-compliant" design, which Shugart
(and others) abandoned in favor of a bi-compliant design with the lower
head fixed.  It's also possible that the drive simply needs adjustment.

And it also possible that you're using cheap media.  Stick with Dysan,
Maxell and Verbatim.  Avoid private labels, Nashua, Memorex, etc.

  Philip Burton      101 Twin Dolphin Drive
  Fortune Systems    Redwood City, CA  94065      (415) 595-8444 x 526
                       - - -
{allegra  decvax!decwrl!amd70  cbosgd harpo hpda ihnp4 sri-unix}!fortune!burton