[rescue] Re: Drive Reliability (was SCSI drive for sale at buy.com)

[Sheldon T. Hall]

Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. writes ...
>
> I have an HP 5.25" full height 1G SCSI drive around that is
> really amusing...
>
> when you power it up and it goes through it's startup sequence,
> just before
> it is ready for access it makes a bing sound...  I've never understood
> exactly how it does this... as it sounds like one of those tiny speakers,
> but it appears to be coming from the mechanicals of the drive.... everyone
> I know that ever heard it would say like "what the heck was that" ?

Heh.  I used to have _four_ of those in one machine.  Firing it up was
interesting.  A _looooong_ series of wind-up noises ("Gentlemen, start your
engines!"), then "BING!" ... "BING!" ... "BING!BING!".

It never failed to solicit a "WTF"? from unitiated onlookers.

Two of those drives are still working away in one of my son's machines, and
the other two are sitting on a shelf here.  Hmmmm.  I just took one down to
confirm that it's really an HP, and, well, it doesn't say.  No place on it
do I see any indication of the manufacturer.  It's a "model: 97558-60062"
... with a max current draw of 51 Watts!  Maybe the "BING!" was the sound of
some massive chain-collision rear-ender on the electron freeway once it got
up to speed and didn't need all 51 Watts anymore.

-Shel