"James Sweet" wrote in message
news:BwTLe.4425$H_4.3802@trnddc07...

An easier way to fix "stiction" which I haven't seen since the days of
20mb
MFM drives is to briskly spin the drive itself along the axis of the
spindle, that'll usually break it free without having to open it up. Some
old drives even had an exposed rotor on the bottom that you could spin by
hand.

I'd actually tried that, but this drive was a little too well stuck for that
to work I guess. I had another drive (an old 80 meg laptop Seagate) whose
heads would stick in the power-off position. I usually had to give it a
good smack with the handle of a screwdriver (to the SIDE of the drive) to
get it going if it hadn't been running in a while. They don't make 'em like
that any more!