MBF COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL FIELD INFORMATION BULLETIN SERVICE GROUP(S): MINI MFG: PRIAM NACS TYPE(S): 4324 MFG. MODEL(S): P806,P807 CATEGORY: DISK I/O DESC: 8" FMD 300MB *** TABLE OF CONTENTS AS OF 12/19/90 *** FIB 00001.General Information.........................................05/02/89 FIB 00002.Installation Information for Basic Four 7000/8000/9000 Syste05/02/89 FIB 00003.Prom change to improve TRACK OVERSHOOT problems.............04/29/87 FIB 00004.Drops Ready or Powers off - Affects B/4 9100 only...........05/12/87 FIB 00005.Disk Drive Drops Ready ,Wipes Out Tracks ,Various Problems..07/20/87 FIB 00006.SMDI Termination - Basic Four Only..........................08/07/87 FIB 00007.DELETED.....................................................01/26/88 FIB 00008.Various intermittant problems due to terminator packs.......09/17/87 FIB 00009.MM293999 IS THE BASIC FOUR PT. NO. FOR THE 8 INCH GROUND STR01/26/88 FIB 00010.ERR 3,7,1,11 while attempting a tape load OS slot update....05/03/88 FIB 00011.Part numbers for Bus cables between SMDI and 8" disks.......08/16/88 FIB 00012.Drives Must be Kept in Shipping Container at all times [ WPS10/24/89 FIB 00013.DRIVE POSITION DURING FORMAT................................01/17/89 FIB 00014.Priam 8" 300 MB disk won't spin up/drops ready..............02/07/89 FIB 00015.Disk Drive Cooling on 8 Inch Drives.........................02/14/89 FIB 00016.Drive does not spin down....................................03/22/89 FIB 00017.600 MB. POWER SUPPLY FOR 300 MB. DRIVE......................08/01/89 FIB 00018.READ ERRORS ON HEAD 10......................................09/24/90 DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------Table Of Contents Pg01 of 01 FIB 00001 05/02/89 *** General Information *** The disk drive has advanced 8-inch winchester technology disk and is driven by an outer-rotor, brushless DC motor. The head positioner coil, carriage, heads and disk are enclosed in a factory sealed, contamination-free chamber to ensure high reliability. Microprocessors are used in the disk drive electronics to provide interface flexibility and to monitor drive operation. Any malfunction detected by the microprocessors will prevent drive start-up, reducing the possibility of data loss or damage to the drive. DRIVE SPECS. MODEL 807-21 : maximum per Basic Four system 8 unformatted capacity 344 MB formatted capacity 314 MB bytes/sector 1024 sectors/track 18 tracks/cylinder (data heads) 11 cylinders 1552 disk rotation 8.3 MS FOUR MAIN ASSEMBLYS ON THE 8-INCH DISK DRIVE: 1. HEAD DISK ASSY.(HDA) - The HDA is a sealed enclosure. It contains the drive spindle assembly, drive motor, hall effect sensors, voice coil motor, head carriage assembly, R/W heads, matrix PCB assembly, magnetic disks, and air filter assemblies. 2. SERVO/MOTOR CONTROL PCB. - The servo motor control pcb assy. Contains the circuitry associated with driving the spindle motor. This circuitry receives an on/off command from the R/W digital PCB, and spindle feedback from the hall effect sensors in the HDA. The servo/motor control PCB also contains the circuitry used for processing the servo signals from the servo head and for controlling the position of the head carriage. 3. READ/WRITE DIGITAL PCB. - The R/W digital PCB contains most of the circuitry associated with R/W control, command execution, and information transfer across the user interface. 4. READ/WRITE MATRIX PCB. - The R/W matrix PCB contains the circuitry used for the first stage of amplification of the read signal along with the read switching circuitry. This PCBA is mounted under the top PCBA by four screws. NACS PART NUMBERS - MAJOR ASSEMBLIES LINE # NACS PART # B/F PART # DESCRIPTION 1 MM294000 400593-002 Disk drive, 344MB 2 MM294001 903531-001 PCBA, SMD interface 3 MM294002 400594-001 Power supply, 344MB 4 MM294024 200696-2 PCBA, servo/motor CNTL 5 MM294025 201444-5 PCBA, matrix Priam 6 MM294026 201098-2 PCBA, R/W digital Priam *** Sorbus Machine Types and Feature Numbers *** DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB001 Pg001 4324 *** Available Documentation *** Basic Four 8" Winchester Disk Service Manual BFISD 8086 PRIAM 8" PRINTS S-HDBK-617 *** Available Training *** Included in the Basic Four 7000/8000/9000 classes at Tustin Basic Four Priam 307 MB Disk Video Tape V-177-0 in the district library ORIGINATOR: J WHALEN DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB001 Pg002 FIB 00002 05/02/89 *** Installation Information for Basic Four 7000/8000/9000 Systems *** INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS: SOFTWARE: 8.5C for 7000 and 8000 9.5C for 9000 and 9500 8.4E for 8000 HARDWARE: ACS PCBA must be at revision level "AA" or higher on 7000/8000 sys. HARDWARE INFORMATION: HARDWARE 7000/8000/9000: All 8-inch disk drives will be housed in the 4510 disk drive module or the 4109 primary mainframe. MOUNTING The drives should be mounted with the power connector down and the cable connections of the drive towards the rear of the cabinet. this configuration should be maintained regardless of the number of drives in the cabinet. SMD interface PCB assembly:two disk drives per SMD interface PCBA. The SMD interface PCBA enables a standard storage module drive (SMD) to be connected to the B/F disk drive interface.The SMDI PCBA is enclosed inside of the B/F product, and will connect in between the "TDP" or "DMA" controller and the disk drive.The SMDI is not intended to be used on small capacity drives although there is no hardware restrictions precluding it.The interface for the SMDI is the same configuration as the B/F standard disk interface except that all lines are driven differentially instead of single ended,this will increase noise margins and insure reliable operation. The SMD interface PCBA is terminated by three (3) sip resistor networks, which are socketed for easy removal and replacement. If no SMD B/F drives (T83, P154). are connected to the SMDI PCBA or it is the last SMDI in a chain then it will have the terminators installed. ELECTRICAL REQUIREMENTS. AC VOLTAGE: The AC line for each 4510 fixed disk module and 4109 primary mainframe is a dedicated isolated ground AC line. The 4510 fixed disk module uses a NEMA L5-15R I.G. receptacle and the 4109 module uses a NEMA L5-20R I.G. receptacle. DC VOLTAGE: The DC voltages are supplied by the SMD power supply,which provides +5, -5, and +24 volts DC. The SMD power supply, will provide DC power for the operation of one SMD interface PCBA and up to two 8-inch disk drives. Each SMD power supply is mounted on the slide-out disk drive chassis below drive 0 and/or drive 2. DC VOLTAGE IS SUPPLIED TO THE DISK DRIVE VIA A SEVEN PIN CONNECTOR (J3). DC PIN CURRENT (AMPS) VOLTAGE NUMBER MAX. NORMAL DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB002 Pg001 ground 1 +24 + 0r - 5% 2 7.0 2.5 -5v + or - 5% 3 2.7 2.2 no connection 4 key 5 +5v + or - 5% 6 2.2 1.7 +24 return 7 DC VOLTAGE IS SUPPLIED TO THE SMDI PCBA VIA A FOUR PIN CONNECTOR (J10). DC PIN VOLTAGE NUMBER +5V 1 GROUND 2 GROUND 3 -5V 4 SWITCH AND JUMPER SETTINGS FOR 8-INCH DISK DRIVE: .........SWITCH/JUMPER SETTINGS for READ/WRITE DIGITAL PCBA (MM294026).......... DIP SWITCH SWITCH 1 BASIC FOUR SETTINGS 1. 1 sector/track off 2. 2 sector/track on 3. 4 sector/track off 4. 8 sector/track off 5. 16 sector/track on 6. 32 sector/track off 7. 64 sector/track off 8. not used off DIP SWITCH SWITCH 2 BASIC FOUR SETTINGS 1. drive select 1 off=0 on=1/3 2. drive select 2 off=0 on=2/3 3. drive select 4 off 4. drive select 8 off 5. on= delayed read gate off 6. on=807 off=806 on 7. enable tag 5 off 8. on= write protect off DIP SWITCH SWITCH 3 BASIC FOUR SETTINGS 1. 256 byte/sector off 2. 512 byte/sector off 3. 1024 byte/sector off 4. 2048 byte/sector off 5. 4096 byte/sector off 6. 8192 byte/sector off 7. off=byte/sector on=sectors/track on 8. not used off JUMPERS JUMPER FUNCTIONS BASIC FOUR SETTINGS W1 A-B normal A-B B-C read gate delay DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB002 Pg002 W2 enable sector at index jumper out W3 auto spin-up jumper out W4 factory use only jumper in W5 factory use only jumper out W6 gate read with index or sector jumper out W7 factory use only jumper in W8 de-gate fault with ready jumper out W9 omitted W10 omitted W11 A-B =807-21 normal A-B B-C =806-23 jumper out = optional high cyl select W12 jumper out = normal jumper out jumper in = optional high cyl select W13 disable short sector jumper in W14 factory use only jumper in ..........JUMPER SETTINGS FOR THE SERVO/MOTOR CTL PCBA - P/N MM294024........... JUMPER CONDITION ------ --------- W1 INSTALLED W6 INSTALLED W7 INSTALLED W8 A TO B W9 B TO C W10 A TO B W11 A TO B W13 A TO B ....................JUMPER SETTINGS FOR SMDI INTERFACE PCBA..................... JUMPER DELAY B/F POSITION (SECONDS) SETTINGS 0 10 IN 1 20 2 30 3 40 4 50 5 60 6 70 7 80 NOTE: Delay jumper must be installed for the disk drive(s) to power down. SWITCH SETTINGS FOR DISK CONTROLLERS: On the 7000/8000 systems a TDP controller (MM890090) must be used and the switch settings are as follows: TDP controller (MM890090) - dip switch located at 2Z 2Z/DISK 1 2Z/DISK 0 7 6 5 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = CLOSED 1 = OPEN On the 9000/9500 the switch settings on the DMA controller (MM894030) are as DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB002 Pg003 follows: DMA controller (MM894030) dip switches located at 6R and 6S 6R/DISK 1 6R/DISK 0 6S/DISK 3 6S/DISK 2 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 X 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 = CLOSED 1 = OPEN X = DON'T CARE NACS PART NUMBERS - MAJOR ASSEMBLIES LINE # NACS PART # B/F PART # DESCRIPTION 1 MM294000 400593-002 Disk drive, 344MB 2 MM294001 903531-001 PCBA, SMD interface 3 MM294002 400594-001 Power supply, 344MB 4 MM294024 200696-2 PCBA, servo/motor CNTL 5 MM294026 201096-1 PCBA, matrix Priam 6 MM294025 201444-4 PCBA, R/W digital Priam ORIGINATOR: J WHALEN Norm Jones DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB002 Pg004 FIB 00003 04/29/87 *** Prom change to improve TRACK OVERSHOOT problems *** SYMPTOM: Read errors due to track overshoot during short track seeks of 2 to 10 tracks in length. PROBLEM DETERMINATION: Prom in R/W PCBA needs upgrade to improve the gain of the servo seek profile. FIX: 1. Remove power and gain acess to Priam 807 disk drive. 2. Remove R/W PCBA 201444-5 (MM294025) and locate prom in location 4A. 3. Prom should be Priam part number 342334 (EC 11221), if not, replace with Sorbus part number MM294033. 4. On PCBA in the area next to PCBA assembly and EC numbers, write with permanent ink "FI 172". ORIGINATOR: J. O'Brien DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB003 Pg001 FIB 00004 05/12/87 *** Drops Ready or Powers off - Affects B/4 9100 only *** SYMPTOM/TEXT: Disk may drop ready with status 80020000 or completely power down intermittently. Found that metering the a/c voltage input to the 300 mb disk power supply would cause the symptom described. Suspect injection of RF energy back through the a/c power cord which had been cable tied to the disk control panel ribbon cable. FIX: Cut the cable ties and seperate the a/c power cable from the ribbon cable. NOTE: This condition may not exist on all 9100 systems but was observed on more than one. ORIGINATOR: Allan Mollyhorn DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB004 Pg001 FIB 00005 07/20/87 *** Disk Drive Drops Ready ,Wipes Out Tracks ,Various Problems *** SYMPTOM: Disk drive drops ready , wipes out tracks and has various problems. PROBLEM DETERMINATION: A/C power cable (907888-001) from ACDU to disk power supply , has bad crimp connection on end that plugs into ACDU. All wires (hot , neutral , ground) were crimped around plastic sleving , and not making solid connection to wire. FIX: Remove receptical and wire connectors , strip wire back and re-install connectors and receptical. Insure that wire connectors are making proper connection with bare wire. ORIGINATOR: J.O'Brien DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB005 Pg001 FIB 00006 08/07/87 *** SMDI Termination - Basic Four Only *** All SMDI boards (903531 & 903591) Have their pluggable terminators in wrong. Pin 1 on resistor packs (a black dot or notch at the pin 1 end), should be facing pin 50 on the buss cable connector. SMDI II Bds. at REV A AND B have PIN 1 of the terminator facing pin 1 of the buss connector (opposite of rev x1 and SMDI boards) If terminators are installed backwards,the level at the receivers is about 1.6 volts . installed correctly it is about2.5 volts. Check terminators on next pm or if you are experiencing funny problems with 8" disks. ORIGINATOR: Ira Leibowitz DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB006 Pg001 FIB 00007 01/26/88 *** DELETED *** ORIGINATOR: J. Whalen DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB007 Pg001 FIB 00008 09/17/87 *** Various intermittant problems due to terminator packs *** A variety of intermittent problems that look like P314 (8") disk drive problems, including some false "Drive Offline" messages, may be the result of reversed terminator packs on SMDI (PN 903531 and 903591) and SMDII (PN 903633) PCBA's Any site experiencing 8" drive problems should have the terminator packs checked and corrected if necessary. Sites not experiencing problems should have the terminator packs checked for proper placement and corrected, if necessary, at the next scheduled Preventative Maintainence (PM). It is likely that all SMDI boards (PN 903531 and PN 903591) have been shipped from the factory with incorrect placement. Some SMDII boards (PN 903633) have also been shipped with incorrect placement. These resistor packs are located on all versions of the board between Bus connectors J1 and J2. Pin 1 is marked on the resistor packs by a black dot. Silkscreen markings on the boards indicate the bus cable pin numbering for connector J1. Please refer to diagram. For the SMDI PCBA's the packs should be placed so that Pin 1 is facing Pin 50 (left) of the 50 pin Bus cable connected to J1. When correctly oriented, the black dot on all three resistor packs will be towards Pin 50 (left) of the Bus cable. For the SMDII PCBA the packs should be placed so that Pin 1 is facing Pin 1 (right) of the Bus cable connected to J1. When correctly oriented, the black dot on all three resistor packs will be towards Pin 1 (right) of the Bus cable. There may have been a few SMDII PCBA's revision "X1" shipped in the MPx 9100 Beta units. The correct terminator pack placement on these PCBA's will be the same as the SMDI PCBA's. OTHER P314 CAUTIONS: Some add-on disk drives and spares may have been shipped with jumper "W3" (auto spin) in. This jumper should be out. An indication of this jumper being in is that the drive will stay ready and won't spin down when the system is turned off. When doing maintenance on the P314 drives, never remove the Bus or Radial cables when the drive is spun up and ready. This could cause possible format/data corruption from an unwanted transition. Ensure that other drives on the same Bus cable are not on-line and ready if removing the Bus cable. They too may become corrupted. DRAWING INFORMATION: See WPS Bulletin #367 hardcopy for drawing. ORIGINATOR: D. Luque DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB008 Pg001 FIB 00009 01/26/88 *** MM293999 IS THE BASIC FOUR PT. NO. FOR THE 8 INCH GROUND STRAP *** THE CORRECT PT. NO. FOR THE 8 INCH DISK DRIVE GROUND STRAP IS MM293999 FIX: TO REDUCE WEAR ON THE REPLACEMENT GROUND STRAP, ADJUST THE SPRING TENSION OF THE STRAP BY FORMING THE BEND TO A SMALLER ANGLE, CAUTION NOT TO REMOVE TO MUCH AS TO PREVENT CONTACT OF THE STRAP TO THE SPINDLE BUTTON. ORIGINATOR: ALLAN MOLLYHORN LOGON: 13DPS1 DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB009 Pg001 FIB 00010 05/03/88 *** ERR 3,7,1,11 while attempting a tape load OS slot update *** SYMPTOM: After replacing a system disk, an ERR 3,7,1,11 occurrs while attempting to update the OS slots from tape. DEMON (or NEWX) runs without errors and DIVE completes normally without error. PROBLEM DETERMINATION: DEMON and NEWX default maximum cylinder values are less than the maximum cylinders on the disk. To test the entire disk the default values must be changed to: Ending Cylinder = 1551 FIX: The highest numbered track on the disk must be reformatted, bring up DIVE and ROT the highest numbered track: cyl = 1551 hd = 10 Try ROTing the track in place first (don't force a relocation) then if the failure persists force a relocation. Apprarently under some conditions the DIVE program doesn't completely format the drive. ORIGINATOR: N. Jones/B. Berard DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB010 Pg001 FIB 00011 08/16/88 *** Part numbers for Bus cables between SMDI and 8" disks. *** SYMPTOM/TEXT: Use the following part numbers when ordering the 60 conducter (multi colored) Bus cables: Bus cable, SMDI to 8" disk (1.5 feet) MM294017 Bus cable, 8" disk to 8" disk (3.5 feet) MM294038 ORIGINATOR: Barry Matthews DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB011 Pg001 FIB 00012 10/24/89 *** Drives Must be Kept in Shipping Container at all times [ WPSF 485 ] *** NOTE: Significant shipping damage is occurring again, the cautions listed in this FIB must be observed for returned drives as well as spares! Drives are being removed from their approved packaging and are stored and/or transported, out in the field without proper packaging. Drives must be kept in their approved packaging up until the time of their use. This also includes the transport of the drives out to a customer site. Failure to follow this simple guideline can, and probably will, result in shock damage to the HDA. Due to the large size of the box, a special handling container has been developed by the Materials organization. This container is available through logistics. 8" Priam drives (300MB) are especially susceptible to handling damage. There is a protective aluminum shield that snaps onto the PCBA-side of the drive to protect the PCBA during shipping. When installing or removing the drive from a cabinet, the drive should not be held in such a way that the protective shield presses against the PCBA, or damage will result to the PCBA components. Winchester Disk Drives are extremely susceptible to shock damage. Failure to ship these drives, via a carrier whose material handling systems will adequately protect the drive from excessive shock, will result in damage to the drives. It should be noted that United Parcel Service (UPS) must not be used as a method for shipping any Winchester Disk Drive, due to the fact that they have drops in excess of 3' in their material handling system. Even defective drives, being returned to the repair center, should not be sent via UPS. Implementation of these simple precautions will further help us in our desire to provide the highest quality products to our customers. ORIGINATOR: L. Sanders Modified by: Norm Jones DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB012 Pg001 FIB 00013 01/17/89 *** DRIVE POSITION DURING FORMAT *** SOME OF THE DRIVE PROBLEMS OCCURRING IN THE FIELD ARE ATTRIBUTED TO THE POSITION THE DRIVE IS IN DURING FORMAT. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE DRIVE BE MOUNTED IN THE CUSTOMERS SYSTEM AND FORMATTED TO INSURE WILL WORK CORRECTLY FOR EXAMPLE IN THE 9000 CABINET IT IS MOUNTED SIDEWAYS IN THE 9100 CABINET IT IS MOUNTED ON ITS BASE ORIGINATOR: J WHALEN DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB013 Pg001 FIB 00014 02/07/89 *** Priam 8" 300 MB disk won't spin up/drops ready. *** DATE: 02/06/89 TITLE: Priam 8" 300 MB disk won't spin up/drops ready. SYMPTOM/TEXT: A Priam 8" disk attached to a 9500 system would not spin up, all voltages were present at the power input to the disk drive. FIX: Upon inspection of the power harness 907959-001 (mm294003) that carries power from the 8" disk power supply to the disk drive/SMDI pcba it was noticed that the contacts had lost tension and caused a loose connection and some arcing to occur at the drive end of the cable. The cable and the Servo/Motor control pcba (mm294024) were replaced. I suspect the arcing at the power connector took out the pcba. The other drives were checked and found to have loose contacts, I suggest checking these contacts whenever service is required in that area of the system. ORIGINATOR: Barry Matthews LOGON: MATTHB DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB014 Pg001 FIB 00015 02/14/89 *** Disk Drive Cooling on 8 Inch Drives *** SYMPTOM/TEXT: Various problems with 8 inch drives such as error 3s, dropping ready, logic boards failing often, high cabinet temperature. FIX: Make sure the cables from the disk drives are routed and tied as not to block the air flow from the fans through the cabinets. Also there is a field bulletin in review at this time explaining direction of air flow and type of fans for the cpu. NOTE: The maximum allowable rise in exhaust air temperature is 20 degrees F above the ambient room temperature. Absolute maximum allowable exhaust air temperature is 100 degrees F (80 degrees ambient + 20 degree rise). ORIGINATOR: RICHARD VAN PELT LOGON: VANPER DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB015 Pg001 FIB 00016 03/22/89 *** Drive does not spin down *** SYMPTOM/TEXT: The drive will not spin down when power is turned off from CPU panel. Will also spin up immediately when ac breaker is turned on. Normally occurs on new installs or drive replacement. FIX: Drives are being erroneously shipped with W3 installed on the R/W PCBA. Remove this jumper. ORIGINATOR: John Tank ,J Whalen DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB016 Pg001 FIB 00017 08/01/89 *** 600 MB. POWER SUPPLY FOR 300 MB. DRIVE *** SYMPTOM/TEXT: P/N MM450060, POWER SUPPLY FOR 600 MB. DISC CAN BE USED FOR 300 MB. DISC ALSO. . TO USE FOR 300 MB., UNSCREW CONNECTOR MOUNTING PCB AT THE BARRIER STRIP. ALSO DISCONNECT ORANGE WIRE ON CONNECTOR PCB AT POWER SUPPLY CONNECTOR. . REF: DMA III / SMD CONTROLLER & 8" DISC DRIVE MANUAL #M0132C, P2-49 & 50. FIX: ORIGINATOR: PETE DOBROW DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB017 Pg001 FIB 00018 09/24/90 *** READ ERRORS ON HEAD 10 *** SYMPTOM: Errors logged on Head 10 (and maybe also Head 9) - usually within a few weeks after installation. May grow steadily worse over that period. Drive may have been formatted in the installed position. It has been observed that a significant number of PRIAM 806/807 drives are affected by a 'settling' phenomenon when they are mounted in any attitude different from that in which they had previously been operated (or shipped). The 'settling' may take as little as 8 hours or as much as two weeks (or more) depending on how much seeking activity and thermal change occurs. The result of this 'settling' is mis-alignment of the high-numbered heads relative to the data and format written before 'settling' occurs. Once 'settled' in place, the condition stops degrading, but does not improve by itself. FIX: The drive must be completely re-formatted and all data restored after the 'settling' has stabilized. The following procedure is recommended: 1. After drive replacement, run DEMON first to verify that the drive has been formatted, and to verify that no damage-in-transit has occured. Do not re-format the drive if DEMON shows no problems. 2. After DEMON has run successfully, prepare the drive for customer use by making the necessary Volume Label changes, Family functions, and install all necessary software. Run NEWX as soon as possible after making the drive ready for Operating System (customer) use (preferably as soon as the Family has been initiallized on a data drive or as soon as the OS has been installed on a System Drive). Do not re-format the drive unless the Error Log shows read errors indicative of mis-alignment. 3. Release the System to the customer or software vendor for installation of application software, customer data (etc). Check the Error Log at the completion of this process for any read errors. 4. Advise the customer to perform backups which will include all data and software on the new drive (daily if possible) for a period of several weeks. 5. Run NEWX Seeking and Reading tests as often as practical for those few weeks, observing the Error Log for drive in question. The object is to cause any 'settling' to occur while the whole-drive backups are still being performed. 6. If the Error Log data indicates that a 'Head 10' problem is developing, use NEWX Random Seek and Random Track Read operations to make it 'settle' as soon as possible. When the drive stabilizes, re-format it and put all data and software back on. It should not be necessary to repeat the process unless the drive is placed in a different attitude at a future time. If it is possible to exercise the drive strenuously for approximately 16 hours after it has been placed into the operating attitude (horizontal or vertical), but prior to installing the software or data, it can probably be considered stabilized by that time, and the need for re-formatting will have been either proven or eliminated. It must be remembered, however that merely spinning for that time will not ensure 'settling'. It is necessary to perform Random Seek activity and Random Track Reads to both cause and detect the condition. It is also better to avoid any Writing, DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB018 Pg001 as this will mask the condition. ORIGINATOR: J. Vanderheyden DISK I/O-PRIAM-P806,P807----------------------------FIB018 Pg002