So I bought a Lisa and it came with a ProFile and a Widget drive. Both of which seem to not be working anymore. The ProFile didn't spin so I rotated the bearings counterclockwise until the drive started to spin again. However it doesn't seek, I hear the brake release and then nothing. So I turned to the Widget drive which does spin up and I hear the brake release with the distinctive clunk. However after that I don't hear the distinctive squeak the drive makes as it seeks. I understand that the voice coil uses optical sensors along a glass panel to determine the position of the heads (do correct me if I am wrong), and this panel is often broken meaning the heads cannot seek. I am just wondering if opening the drive and potentially compromising it ever working again is worth it to see if this glass piece is broken? If anyone has any suggestions they would be much appreciated.
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Apple Lisa Widget Drive
- Thread starter max1227
- Start date
Hi, thanks for your response!
I opened the drive up and the platter looks fine as does the actuator. It also moves freely as I gently respositioned it to check it hadn’t seized. I also verified that the actuator does move after the brake is released but it basically jiggles backwards and forwards stops and then repeats?? Any ideas?
I opened the drive up and the platter looks fine as does the actuator. It also moves freely as I gently respositioned it to check it hadn’t seized. I also verified that the actuator does move after the brake is released but it basically jiggles backwards and forwards stops and then repeats?? Any ideas?
aplmak
Well-known member
You know... i've opened up many old hard drives including widgets.. I think the drives of this time period are not as sensitive as people think than ones of today. I've even used qtips on Mac Portable platters with alcohol and it didn't affect anything.. So as much as some people say you need a clean room I think for all these old hard drives they are much more forgiving.. When I do it I just make sure I'm not in a dusty environment and I blow out the drive carefully before replacing the cover. I have recovered about 5 or so Mac Portable drives from the sealant turning to goo.... before it get's on the heads or platters... I think once that has gotten on the heads or platters it's game over for those. On the widget's I've always had issues when the glass platter for the optical sensors is moved or broken.. Sometimes if I remember right they were just glued in place.. and in some drives they had a bracket securing them in place... When I open one up and see the bracket there I am relieved... I then don't really screw with the insides much after that.. because I've found that that is the major issue... When people ship them they break off or come unglued and then are rolling around scratching up the platters in there...
Sorry to go off on Mac Portables... but I usually swap out a "black bumper" assembly with the clear ones on the Connor Portable drives... those black bumpers turn gooey and the arms stick to it.. With the COVID I've had a lot of time to bring back to life a bunch of Connor drives... I have about 4 I just need new boards for.. the hard drive itself is fine.. I just have a box of bad boards.. and I don't know what really is wrong with the boards.. Perhaps when the caps went bad on the motherboard they had sent back some bad voltage feedback or some bad stuff to the drive board that fried one of the chips??? I dunno... anyway sorry to change subjects.
Sorry to go off on Mac Portables... but I usually swap out a "black bumper" assembly with the clear ones on the Connor Portable drives... those black bumpers turn gooey and the arms stick to it.. With the COVID I've had a lot of time to bring back to life a bunch of Connor drives... I have about 4 I just need new boards for.. the hard drive itself is fine.. I just have a box of bad boards.. and I don't know what really is wrong with the boards.. Perhaps when the caps went bad on the motherboard they had sent back some bad voltage feedback or some bad stuff to the drive board that fried one of the chips??? I dunno... anyway sorry to change subjects.
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mactjaap
Well-known member
I would advise to try NeoWidEx and BLU startup floppies to see if these programs recognize your Widget. In NeoWidEx you can give some commands to the disk where it can come back to live.
Im also a fan of these old hard disks.
see fi this article:
or my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/tjabring
Im also a fan of these old hard disks.
see fi this article:
or my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/tjabring
Thanks for your messages.
Yes I have learnt that you can be much more forceful with these drives than one might expect. I since have acquired two more widgets and have opened up all 3. Now on all 3 brakes release and all 3 have the glass optical grating intact and stuck down. One I think has a bracket holding it in place which incidentally is also a low serial number and a 4 layer controller. The two additional widgets I acquired were also broken but I managed to fix them both. Easy cases of stuck platters and one had a faulty Z8 which I worked out through swapping boards and IC's.
But that original widget (the one mentioned at the start of this thread) isn't working unfortunately. I have swapped boards and the behaviour doesn't change. Platters are find as is the glass optical grating and the heads and bearings all move freely. All in all this drive runs very quiet. It doesn't pass it's self-test and gets stuck there. No squeak-squeak just a jittering behaviour. See attached video. I will use NeoWidEx when I get a moment to switch out the working widgets with this one and will update this post in due course.
View attachment IMG_1060.mov
Yes I have learnt that you can be much more forceful with these drives than one might expect. I since have acquired two more widgets and have opened up all 3. Now on all 3 brakes release and all 3 have the glass optical grating intact and stuck down. One I think has a bracket holding it in place which incidentally is also a low serial number and a 4 layer controller. The two additional widgets I acquired were also broken but I managed to fix them both. Easy cases of stuck platters and one had a faulty Z8 which I worked out through swapping boards and IC's.
But that original widget (the one mentioned at the start of this thread) isn't working unfortunately. I have swapped boards and the behaviour doesn't change. Platters are find as is the glass optical grating and the heads and bearings all move freely. All in all this drive runs very quiet. It doesn't pass it's self-test and gets stuck there. No squeak-squeak just a jittering behaviour. See attached video. I will use NeoWidEx when I get a moment to switch out the working widgets with this one and will update this post in due course.
View attachment IMG_1060.mov
ried
Well-known member
Mine exhibits this exact same behavior. Were you able to solve it?
mactjaap
Well-known member
My only working disk is doing a little bit the same. You could try, if you are brave, to move the arm a little bit with a finger. Put your finger on the back magnet and move 1 to 5 mm. My the disk arm could find its way when you help it a little bit. But only do it after the disk is running and the brake is released. No guarantees….
