ScuzzBlog: Diaries February 2020
Entry 24th February 2020: Post 01: Amiga 3000 - The constant battle.
Amiga 3000 - The constant battle.
For me keeping old hard drives alive is a constant battle. Sadly
in time the failing hard drive will give up. All you can do is
save your data and hope it never happens. The noises of a drive
are always different and kinda give the computer its own identity.
And so after 17 years of developing a fault with the motor on this
SCSI drive in an Amiga 3000 it finally gave in and died. Twas a
sad moment and not one that I didn't keep trying just in case. For
some while the drives would gently spin into action and the floppy
drive would click a second time after boot, to signal the boot from
hard. If the floppy clicked only once I would have to wait for the
hard drive to spin up and then reboot the machine. Sometimes it
would take 30 minutes or so to get the drive working.
Well that was until the other day when sadly it just never clicked
twice. It has refused to click twice and so I took it onto the
bench to have a look.
Normally the boot screen flicks through on its own and I have the
OS loaded. This time however I get the old style boot screen and a
request for the A3000 special boot disk. Worse is that it would
only boot into 1.3 as I think under 2.x the hard drive seek is
halting the process.
I did have a strange moment when booting an old 2.04 disk copy
that I have as I was greeted with an elephant. Turned out to be
a PD disk from Berlin of all places.
These drives are archaic and no doubt existed when the machine
was first purchased. The kind Amigan that gifted me this A3000
wrote in his notes for 2003 that the rear hard drive motor was
not firing up at times and then clicked as it did so. That is
the second click that now illudes me.
The computer does not now boot into the OS from the hard drive.
1.3 shows the front drive to be working though not sure what is
on that drive. Sadly I was unable to get into 2.x. I would need
to disable the drive and I just don't have the guts to pull the
plug on life support.
Quite a sad day, but not one that I am unfamiliar with. For those
of us that live by their hard drives and prefer the gentle whir
of a drive at the heart of their machines losing a drive is not
easy to deal with. It is as though the computer is fractured and
no longer whole and lost of its soul. No modern solution will
ever replicate the gentle spin of a booted drive and the reassuring
noises as it goes about it's business. I am kinda lost for the
moment, but will move on and hopefully find another drive to
give back life to the 3000.
Over the last couple of years I have replaced a dozen internal
2.5" hard drives in Amiga 1200s. It was a most rewarding experience.
Thankfully drives are still available from China. Maybe I can
find an SCSI drive of the size needed. Just need to look around.
Fingers crossed.
PS The A3000 is on the table behind me whirring away. I just keep
hoping beyond hope I will hear that second click. Ar hum !!
Amiga 3000 - The constant battle.
Colin's note on the A3000 - motor problem 2003
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