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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: Ral-Clan on March 03, 2013, 08:32:11 PM

Title: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: Ral-Clan on March 03, 2013, 08:32:11 PM
Hi,

I'm putting an Amiga away in storage for an indefinite period of time.  Should I park the heads on the hard drive?  Does anyone actually do that anymore?

I've never done it and never experienced a problem?

Is it even easy to do / undo?
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: Iggy on March 03, 2013, 08:34:04 PM
Quote from: ral-clan;728161
Hi,

I'm putting an Amiga away in storage for an indefinite period of time.  Should I park the heads on the hard drive?  Does anyone actually do that anymore?

I've never done it and never experienced a problem?

Is it even easy to do / undo?


Most newer drives do this automatically on shut down.
I'd forgotten that this had to be done on older drives/
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: bbond007 on March 03, 2013, 09:55:28 PM
Quote from: ral-clan;728161
Hi,

I'm putting an Amiga away in storage for an indefinite period of time.  Should I park the heads on the hard drive?  Does anyone actually do that anymore?

I've never done it and never experienced a problem?

Is it even easy to do / undo?

I'm writing a utility to park SSD drives. Let you know when I'm finished...

My Toshiba Qosmio says its parking the HDs if it detects any vibration.
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: XDelusion on March 03, 2013, 09:57:14 PM
I parked a couple in the Wal-Mart parking lot the other day...

...needless to say, when I came back out, someone had parked on top of them.
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: save2600 on March 03, 2013, 10:13:03 PM
Never parked a HD in my life.  :lol:

Speaking of Wal-Mart... this lady and her cat were "living" out of her car parked at the local (more like loco) Wal-Mart up until recently. Wal-Mart... naturally and of course.  ;)
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: Ral-Clan on March 03, 2013, 10:17:42 PM
Quote from: Iggy;728162
Most newer drives do this automatically on shut down.
I'd forgotten that this had to be done on older drives/

Thanks, I didn't know that.  This is a "newish" drive (2.1 GB - so circa 2000?).

But Amiga's don't go through a shut down process that gives time/warning to the hard drive to park itself.  The power just suddenly gets cut to the whole system / os.

I don't really think it's a big issue, but I saw a utility on my Supra installation disk that allowed you to do this and wondered about it.
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: Iggy on March 03, 2013, 10:26:48 PM
Quote from: ral-clan;728182
Thanks, I didn't know that.  This is a "newish" drive (2.1 GB - so circa 2000?).

But Amiga's don't go through a shut down process that gives time/warning to the hard drive to park itself.  The power just suddenly gets cut to the whole system / os.

I don't really think it's a big issue, but I saw a utility on my Supra installation disk that allowed you to do this and wondered about it.



I don't thinks its necessary on a more recent drive like the one you have.

"Parking an SSD" - now that's funny!
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: gaula92 on March 03, 2013, 10:51:50 PM
I always park the SD on my Minimig, too.
Actually I call my personal chauffeur and let him do it.
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: Lurch on March 04, 2013, 02:19:46 AM
New HDD's auto park. Parking HDD's is so 90's :-)
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: Iggy on March 04, 2013, 02:42:04 AM
Quote from: Lurch;728211
New HDD's auto park. Parking HDD's is so 90's :-)


Yeah, like, my car can do that too.
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: Lando on March 04, 2013, 02:43:59 AM
I don't think it's necessary any more.  Even my ancient 1980's Seagate 20MB drive automatically parked the heads when power was cut.  I think any drive "newer" than 20 years old would be fine.
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: ElPolloDiabl on March 04, 2013, 06:59:38 AM
I would park it. If you are going to be moving it around a lot.
The larger the capacity the more delicate it is. Listen closely to it
and you will hear if it is parking automatically.
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: Lurch on March 04, 2013, 07:03:09 AM
Quote from: Iggy;728212
Yeah, like, my car can do that too.


Yep if you are lucky enough to own something recent have to parallel park is a thing of the past :-)
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: Zac67 on March 04, 2013, 07:34:07 AM
Linear actuator drives (from ca 1992 onward, 99.99% of all IDE and SCSI drives) park their heads by themselves on power down. They use the motor as generator with the stored rotational energy to move the head well into the parking area. Additional software parking has no effect.

Stepping motor type drives required a large number of stepping pulses, some park in the inside, some on the outside. So, software is required to move the head appropriately before shutdown.
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: persia on March 04, 2013, 12:26:38 PM
That would really come in handy if you are travelling in countries that drive on the right hand side of the road.  It's hard enough they drive from the passenger seat, parking requires you to think everything backwards...

Quote from: Lurch;728224
Yep if you are lucky enough to own something recent have to parallel park is a thing of the past :-)
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: Lurch on March 04, 2013, 06:11:24 PM
Quote from: persia;728230
That would really come in handy if you are travelling in countries that drive on the right hand side of the road.  It's hard enough they drive from the passenger seat, parking requires you to think everything backwards...


Yep, and it's always easier to get an auto if you are driving in the states. Although the way Auckland traffic is stuffed up wouldn't want a manual trying to attempt getting into the CBD.
Title: Re: Does anyone park hard drives anymore?
Post by: motrucker on March 04, 2013, 06:28:51 PM
If you are really interested in parking the heads, dig into the info on the specific drive you are using......