I have an old WD1600 7200 rpm 160GB drive with 90,000 hrs which I no
longer want or need so decided to experiment with it, First thing I had
to get was a set of Torx driver bits, mine onlyy go down to T10, I
ordered a set from Amazon covering T5 to T40, the ones with hollow
center to access security screws for $12.00.

I then loaded the drive with about 40GB of random files and folders.
Next I removed the cover, 7 T9 screws, (1 hidden under label) Plugged
into my hotswap bay and watched the action.

It spun up and then unparked the head and started seeking, it took about
30 or 40 seconds to find all the files and folders, I then opened
folders and files and installed a couple programs.

It was a little slower and did a lot of seeking but everything worked,
now 4 hours later it is still working OK sans it's cover, I will let it
run till tomorrow and report results.

Rene

On 2/24/2022 11:55 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
> I have an old WD1600  7200 rpm 160GB drive with 90,000 hrs which I no longer want or need so decided to experiment with it, First thing I had to get was a set of Torx driver bits, mine onlyy go down to T10, I ordered a set from Amazon covering T5 to T40, the ones with hollow center to access security screws for $12.00.
>
> I then loaded the drive with about 40GB of random files and folders. Next I removed the cover, 7 T9 screws, (1 hidden under label) Plugged into my hotswap bay and watched the action.
>
> It spun up and then unparked the head and started seeking, it took about 30 or 40 seconds to find all the files and folders, I then opened folders and files and installed a couple programs.
>
> It was a little slower and did a lot of seeking but everything worked, now  4 hours later it is still working OK sans it's cover, I will let it run till tomorrow and report results.
>
> Rene

I did something just as bad. I let loose the NTFS3 driver from
Paragon, on Ubuntu 22.04 (beta?) and it didn't end well. Still
cleaning up the mess, or attempting to clean up the mess.

The whole purpose of testing, was so I could have a release
that does not print "I/O Error" when accessing Windows 10 or
Windows 11 partitions. I was able to delete C:\$Windows.~BT,
which for some reason was owned by TrustedInstaller and
caused my Windows 10 Repair Install to fail. I wanted an "easy" way
to blow the folder away. Instead of digging out the tools to become
TrustedInstaller and (perhaps) meeting with more issues.

The folder deleted OK, but Windows was unhappy on the next boot...

I could have sworn, that back in 10240 timeframe, those dollar folders
were quite passive and not a nuisance. Long ago, they were easy to delete.

*******

I guess the flying height on drives, really wasn't 3nm after all :-)

Judging by your drive continuing to run.

Even on the old 10u drives, atmospheric contaminants would take their
toll. That's why you'd run the drive on "purge" for a number of minutes,
to give the hepafilter a chance to bring down the Class closer to
Class 100 or Class 1000.

Paul

On 2022-02-25 3:37 a.m., Paul wrote:
> On 2/24/2022 11:55 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
>> I have an old WD1600  7200 rpm 160GB drive with 90,000 hrs which I no
>> longer want or need so decided to experiment with it, First thing I
>> had to get was a set of Torx driver bits, mine onlyy go down to T10, I
>> ordered a set from Amazon covering T5 to T40, the ones with hollow
>> center to access security screws for $12.00.
>>
>> I then loaded the drive with about 40GB of random files and folders.
>> Next I removed the cover, 7 T9 screws, (1 hidden under label) Plugged
>> into my hotswap bay and watched the action.
>>
>> It spun up and then unparked the head and started seeking, it took
>> about 30 or 40 seconds to find all the files and folders, I then
>> opened folders and files and installed a couple programs.
>>
>> It was a little slower and did a lot of seeking but everything worked,
>> now  4 hours later it is still working OK sans it's cover, I will let
>> it run till tomorrow and report results.
>>
>> Rene
>
> I did something just as bad. I let loose the NTFS3 driver from
> Paragon, on Ubuntu 22.04 (beta?) and it didn't end well. Still
> cleaning up the mess, or attempting to clean up the mess.
>
> The whole purpose of testing, was so I could have a release
> that does not print "I/O Error" when accessing Windows 10 or
> Windows 11 partitions. I was able to delete C:\$Windows.~BT,
> which for some reason was owned by TrustedInstaller and
> caused my Windows 10 Repair Install to fail. I wanted an "easy" way
> to blow the folder away. Instead of digging out the tools to become
> TrustedInstaller and (perhaps) meeting with more issues.
>
> The folder deleted OK, but Windows was unhappy on the next boot...
>
> I could have sworn, that back in 10240 timeframe, those dollar folders
> were quite passive and not a nuisance. Long ago, they were easy to delete.

I just deleted $Windows~BT without help but $Windows~WS needed permission.

> *******
>
> I guess the flying height on drives, really wasn't 3nm after all :-)
>
> Judging by your drive continuing to run.
>
> Even on the old 10u drives, atmospheric contaminants would take their
> toll. That's why you'd run the drive on "purge" for a number of minutes,
> to give the hepafilter a chance to bring down the Class closer to
> Class 100 or Class 1000.
>
>    Paul

End of experiment, the drive has run some 10 hours and still works.

Some factors that helped are, The apartment is concrete and drywall on
all 6 sides
No dusty wooden walls.

The heating is hot water baseboard heaters, No forced air blowing dust
around the room.

The computer is in my bedroom so there was no one moving around.

The drive was much slower today with the head seeking for a while then
it would park the head and a few seconds later it would try again,
sometimes with a frenzied buzz and 2 error messages which I can't remember.

After 2 or 3 minutes it had found all 192 files and folders, all the
files I tried worked and again I installed a couple programs which
worked fine.

My curiosity being now fully satisfied I proceeded to fully dismantle
the drive to salvage the great magnets (there was only 1 on this drive),
there were 2 sizes of screws, T7 and T9, the spindle motor was a 24
coil stator and permanent magnet armature.

DO NOT Do this to a GOOD drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rene

On 2/25/2022 12:10 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
> On 2022-02-25 3:37 a.m., Paul wrote:
>> On 2/24/2022 11:55 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
>>> I have an old WD1600  7200 rpm 160GB drive with 90,000 hrs which I no
>>> longer want or need so decided to experiment with it, First thing I
>>> had to get was a set of Torx driver bits, mine onlyy go down to T10,
>>> I ordered a set from Amazon covering T5 to T40, the ones with hollow
>>> center to access security screws for $12.00.
>>>
>>> I then loaded the drive with about 40GB of random files and folders.
>>> Next I removed the cover, 7 T9 screws, (1 hidden under label) Plugged
>>> into my hotswap bay and watched the action.
>>>
>>> It spun up and then unparked the head and started seeking, it took
>>> about 30 or 40 seconds to find all the files and folders, I then
>>> opened folders and files and installed a couple programs.
>>>
>>> It was a little slower and did a lot of seeking but everything
>>> worked, now  4 hours later it is still working OK sans it's cover, I
>>> will let it run till tomorrow and report results.
>>>
>>> Rene
>>
>> I did something just as bad. I let loose the NTFS3 driver from
>> Paragon, on Ubuntu 22.04 (beta?) and it didn't end well. Still
>> cleaning up the mess, or attempting to clean up the mess.
>>
>> The whole purpose of testing, was so I could have a release
>> that does not print "I/O Error" when accessing Windows 10 or
>> Windows 11 partitions. I was able to delete C:\$Windows.~BT,
>> which for some reason was owned by TrustedInstaller and
>> caused my Windows 10 Repair Install to fail. I wanted an "easy" way
>> to blow the folder away. Instead of digging out the tools to become
>> TrustedInstaller and (perhaps) meeting with more issues.
>>
>> The folder deleted OK, but Windows was unhappy on the next boot...
>>
>> I could have sworn, that back in 10240 timeframe, those dollar folders
>> were quite passive and not a nuisance. Long ago, they were easy to
>> delete.
>
>
> I just deleted $Windows~BT without help but $Windows~WS needed  permission.
>
>
>> *******
>>
>> I guess the flying height on drives, really wasn't 3nm after all :-)
>>
>> Judging by your drive continuing to run.
>>
>> Even on the old 10u drives, atmospheric contaminants would take their
>> toll. That's why you'd run the drive on "purge" for a number of minutes,
>> to give the hepafilter a chance to bring down the Class closer to
>> Class 100 or Class 1000.
>>
>>     Paul
>
> End of experiment, the drive has run some 10 hours and still works.
>
> Some factors that helped are, The apartment is concrete and drywall on
> all 6 sides
> No dusty wooden walls.
>
> The heating is hot water baseboard heaters, No forced air blowing dust
> around the room.
>
> The computer  is in my bedroom so there was no one moving around.
>
> The drive was much slower today with the head seeking for a while then
> it would park the head and a few seconds later it would try again,
> sometimes with a frenzied buzz and 2 error messages which I can't remember.
>
> After 2 or 3 minutes it had found all 192 files and folders, all the
> files I tried worked and again I installed a couple programs which
> worked fine.
>
> My curiosity being now fully satisfied I proceeded to fully dismantle
> the drive to salvage the great magnets (there was only 1 on this drive),
>  there were 2 sizes of screws,  T7 and T9, the spindle motor was a 24
> coil stator and permanent magnet armature.
>
> DO NOT Do this to a GOOD drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> Rene
>
Back in the 1990s our local community college had a hard drive in their
computer lab that had the case removed to show the internal mechanism.
They were surprised that it still functioned without a problem.
I first saw it a year after that and it was still open to the world and
functioning properly.
Charlie

Charlie <charlieDOTd@vereyezon.net> wrote:
....
> Back in the 1990s our local community college had a hard drive in their
> computer lab that had the case removed to show the internal mechanism.
> They were surprised that it still functioned without a problem.
> I first saw it a year after that and it was still open to the world and
> functioning properly.

Even with its datas? :O
--
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On 2/25/2022 8:02 PM, Ant wrote:
> Charlie <charlieDOTd@vereyezon.net> wrote:
> ...
>> Back in the 1990s our local community college had a hard drive in their
>> computer lab that had the case removed to show the internal mechanism.
>> They were surprised that it still functioned without a problem.
>> I first saw it a year after that and it was still open to the world and
>> functioning properly.
>
> Even with its datas? :O

Yes. Read, write, delete files. Everything worked with no errors.
And the computer lab was definitely not a clean environment.

Charlie

Charlie <charlieDOTd@vereyezon.net> wrote:
> On 2/25/2022 8:02 PM, Ant wrote:
> > Charlie <charlieDOTd@vereyezon.net> wrote:
> > ...
> >> Back in the 1990s our local community college had a hard drive in their
> >> computer lab that had the case removed to show the internal mechanism.
> >> They were surprised that it still functioned without a problem.
> >> I first saw it a year after that and it was still open to the world and
> >> functioning properly.
> >
> > Even with its datas? :O

> Yes. Read, write, delete files. Everything worked with no errors.
> And the computer lab was definitely not a clean environment.

Wow, that's amazing.
--
A weird week so far with skin cuts, wars, winter (ending soon), not that slammy but will be, etc. Incoming heat wave again!
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
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/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
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