From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: steve@quintile.net (Steve Simon) Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2017 00:57:40 +0000 Subject: [TUHS] Storage costs (was: Re: Spell - was tmac: Move macro diagnostics away from `quotes') In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <40d693c678bb4d8eadaee413720da9ab@quintile.net> The Disks that stick in my memory where 4Gb scsi drives from IBM, I forget the model number - this would have been 1996-ish. They had been lubricated with the wrong viscosity oil. Over time the oil would flood out over the top platter, though this didn't seem to stop them working. However when you powered them down they would not spin up again as the heads would stick to the platter. They also made a horrific chattering noise as they tried to start. The IBM service engineer's solution was to thump them with the but of his screwdriver and they would (usually) spin up! We swapped them out pretty sharpish after that. We had dozens attached to a pair of SGI Origins running back-to-back. Thankfully most disks lived long enough to be copied and those that didn't proved the worth of the DLT tapes. -Steve