6.1. How do I park the hard disk heads before moving the machine?
Description
This article is from the 3b1 computers FAQ, by John B. Bunch with numerous contributions by others.
6.1. How do I park the hard disk heads before moving the machine?
The Miniscribe and Hitachi disks used in the 40MB and 67MB machines parks the heads automatically (and loudly) when the power is turned off. (That's that *clunk* sound you hear when you hit the power switch.) Also note that many newer drives have auto-parking mechanisms -- check with your specific manufacturers for more information.
If your drive doesn't auto-park (many Seagates don't), or you want to make extra sure that the heads are in the parked position, then after the machine is shutdown insert the Diagnostics floppy disk and boot from it. Select "Park Disk Heads" from the Diagnostics menu.
Note that the older 7300 machines have 10 or 20MB disks which do not auto-park. If you're buying one used (especially at an auction or a fair), you may want to bring along a diagnostics diskette to make sure the disk is okay.
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