The National Enquirer reports at 1:46 AM +0200 5/27/04, gf sciacca wrote: <snip> >The reason why I have not yet gone ahead with the request is that I had >also contacted Hitachi separately, who have sent me a link to a diagnostic >software (Drive Fitness Test) that unfortunately runs under DOS or >Windows on x68 based computers. Apart from the fact that I found this >rather amusing in year 2004 and considering the HD in question (but maybe >I'm missing something here), the software is supposed to check for bad >sectors and eventually repair them. Should I get some similar test >performed before >returning the disc (if yes, how??), or should I just return based on the >sympoms I see. I mean, the disc works still, but the continuous seeking >noise is abnormal, so is the heat generated...
My experience with bad blocks is that is has nothing to do with the amount of H.D. head access. Normally bad blocks will show up in the inability to save, load or delete files. But it wouldn't hurt to check if you have the tools. I'm not an OS X expert, but the one utility that I know will check for bad blocks is TechTool Pro. Just allocate 4 or 5 hours for the read & write test. There may be other utilities that you could use, I'm not familiar with any of them. I have intentionally tried to stay away from trying to diagnose your problem. One, because I honestly don't remember all of the details. Two, because I have a lot of irons in the fire here at the home front that are consuming my time. But 3 things real quick. You're using OS X? How full is you drive? Do you have between 15 - 20% of the drive free? If not, that could be causing the excessive drive seeking. Have you ever defragmented your drive? This is more of a long shot, but if you're wanting to try all the options before sending the drive back, you ought to defrag it. I know for a fact that if the drive is extremely fragmented, it will expend a lot of head movement saving and loading files. The one utility that I would recommend for this is Alsoft's Plus Optimizer (which used to come free with Disk Warrior, but is only available as a separate entity now IIRC). Norton has a defragger, but I will never recommend Norton to anyone -- that's one of my hangups. Third, can you situate any type of air-flow under your PB. A big fan, a small fan, sit the back end of the PB up 2-3 inches. Try to cool the machine down. Excessive heat will in itself cause more head recalibration. You've been thinking that the excessive head access is causing the heat (and it may be). OTOH the heat may be causing the excessive head access. Maybe someone on list can tell you if there is a temperature gauge for your Lombard in OS 9 (I'm almost positive that there's none for it in OS X). I use G3Strip in OS 8.6 and I wouldn't live without it. That's one reason I haven't move up to OS X on a permanent basis. Anyway, those are my thoughts. I hope someone else will chip in to help you. I just don't have a lot of time at the moment. Good luck, Bob -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
