Shutting down a harddrive through software.

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2 total messages Started by Sarmad Adnan Fri, 06 Jul 1990 01:11

#1542

Author: Sarmad Adnan
Date: Fri, 06 Jul 1990 01:11

17 lines
1098 bytes

Hi you Gurus out there.

I would like to know if it is possible to shutdown ones Hard-drive
(MFM or RLL) using some kind of a system call, interupt, Assembly 
Language call, prayer etc. 

My application program(in MSC) runs on an on-board computer on a mobile robot.
I would like to be able to shutdown the harddrive using some kind of a 
function call or somthing before the robot starts moving.

Is it advisable to simply use a relay to cut the power to the drive down.



                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                  Sarmad Adnan (adnan@rice.edu)
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: Shutting down a harddrive through software.

#1548

Author: Alan Grant Finlay
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 1990 15:38

20 lines
1544 bytes

In article <9660@brazos.Rice.edu>, adnan@rice.edu (Sarmad Adnan) writes:
> 
> I would like to know if it is possible to shutdown ones Hard-drive
> 
> My application program(in MSC) runs on an on-board computer on a mobile robot.
> I would like to be able to shutdown the harddrive using some kind of a 
> function call or somthing before the robot starts moving.
> 
> Is it advisable to simply use a relay to cut the power to the drive down.

You probably don't need to shut down the drive, just park the heads.  I am not
sure how you would go about getting a park function - normally parking
utilities are supplied as .com type commands.  Another possibility is to use
a drive which automatically parks after a period of no activity.  I have a
40 Mbyte Miniscribe model 3650 which does this after about 30 seconds of
no activity (though I have disabled this function).  Even if you use a power
cut relay you still need to park the heads first.  I must admit I don't know
if it is safe to rotate the axis of a spinning drive even if the heads are
parked.  That shouldn't worry you if you mount the drive with the axis
aligned vertically.

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