Disk motor doesn't work

[Kistler]

Hi all
I have the problem, that I have a raid5 system and two disks now have the problem that they do not want to start anymore! The motor is not running! Does someone knows a possability to at least let the disk come up one time more. I just need it for a few minutes, so I can take the datas from it.
It would be a big help, if someone would have a good idea.
Thanks in advanced

[Eugeny Brychkov]

1. something failed in disk electronics. Try replacing from good disk (not from this RAID5 disk set because if one more electronic assy will die you'll have 3 bad disks instead of 2 disks);
2. disk's mechanics is damaged (heads/spindle motor). Nothing you can do by yourself. Try Vogon http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg70004 ;
3. something external failed (backplane, cable etc). Try inserting 'bad' disk into good slots (where other disks work)
Eugeny

[e4services]

Have you tried spinning them up alone one at a time in the slot of the one that does spin? Remove the drive from the tray and see if there are any jumpers set, say for start up delay.
If the drive will not spin up at all, well all is lost and manual retrieval is your only option and will cost you, at minimum $1500, may be more for a RAID

[Michael R. Monteith]

Something else you might take into account. Disk drives are notorious for running for man hours without a problem, but then when they are shut off and allowed to stop they don't want to spin up again. This is because the bearing gets hot and all lubricant is gone. The torque required is too much to overcome.

I've had to take a drive out of a system, hold it in my hands and twisting it from side to side as if trying ot make the disks inside spin. This has the effect of causing the spindles to stay in place as the rest of the drive moves. Many times this will cause the drive to break the friction enough to free it up so that powering it up will cause it to spin again. Of course it will happen again after you shut it off. But it's great for getting a drive going long enough to get your data. Unfortunately with Raid drives you can't do the second option. That is powering it up outside the cabinet and twisting and giving it a jerk from side to side to break it free to spin up. Unless you take the case apart and hook the drive up. But as someone stated that is typically not suggested. But I guess it depends on how valuable your data is and how desperate you are to get that data off. I've had customers in literal tears needing the data. So I've had to get drastic to get the drives to spin up long enough to get data off of it.

Hope it hleps.

Michael

[Rackem4me]

This sounds weird, but I've had success with putting the drive in a freezer for a while to shrink the small parts. Honest.