2940UW/Seagate spins down

[roderickelms]

We have a 9600/350 running either 7.6.1 with an internal 4mB IBM drive and a 2940UW adaptor and 9mB Seagate Barracuda ST39173W.

After a few moments of not being used, the Seagate drive spins down and therefore takes a while to get going again when launching an application etc.

We have removed the Energy Saver extension and also zapped the PRAM, rebuilt the Desktop and checked both drives with Norton.

Any suggestions as to how to avoid this or is it a design feature?!

[Disco_Doctor]

The problem is your hard drive is about to die. I've been through this three times in the last two years. When a drive starts involuntarily and/or randomly spinning down, it has fried. This is the most common way that Quantum and Seagate mechanisms fail - usually as a result of extended overheating. I have learned this from experience and subsequent conversations with Quantum tech support.

Trust me on this! Backup your data off the drive IMMEDIATELY, wish the drive best of luck in its next life, and call Seagate for a replacement.

[Steve Rosenthal]

Disco presents the worst-case scenario, and he very well may be correct. But before abandoning all hope, check to see that it's not a mode-page controlled sleep mode. Many drives do have this feature, though I can't say for sure the Cuda does without checking.

Could be worth a call to Seagate tech support.

--Steve Rosenthal, Digidesign ETS

[roderickelms]

Thanks Steve,

Don't have a Mode Page editor but could work on that approach. The other thing, which I did mention to Disco is that the internal 4gB IBM also spins down. Seems just like the Energy Saver extension is working but that should be disabled and the prefs trashed.

I've only noticed this happning on the 9600 (so far as the internal drive is concerned) since I installed the Adaptec 2940!

Rod

[Disco_Doctor]

Just turning off Energy Saver and trashing its prefs DOES NOT remove its previous settings. You have to open Energy Saver (while it's enabled obviously), set the hard drives to never sleep, close Energy Saver, and then disable it.

Hopefully that'll solve the problem!

Good luck!



[This message has been edited by Disco_Doctor (edited 04-28-99).]

[Steve Rosenthal]

Thanks for that info, Disco.

I looked at the mode pages for the Cuda, and there wasn't anything obvious that controlled the spin-up/spin-down that was user accessible.

Hopefully your answer is the fix.

--Steve Rosenthal, Digidesign ETS