I second both of the things Bill said.  Short of hiring a lawyer that is.

At 6:15 PM 11/19/97, Bill Studenmund wrote:
>> I have an old drive (my old 1.1_ALPHA drive, Quantum Maverick 540S ;-)
>> that started having problems under MacOS, a few months after it began to
>> have stiction problems.  Anyway, Quantum refuses to cover it under
>> warranty, since they go by the manufacture date, not when the drive was
>> purchased several months later... (on a side note, I'm not going to be
>> buying any drives from them for a very, very, very long time...)
>
>I think you should bitch very loudly, and sick a lawer on them. These drives
>NEVER have that policy mentioned. Or, you could complain at the folks who
>sold it to you, for not making the waranty clear (or letting you buy it with
>a false waranty idea).

Be very clear and polite, but firm.  Their warranty says this amount of
time.  You bought it on this date.  Inventory control is not your problem.
(More legally speaking the warranty is a provision of the sale contract and
the date of sale is the contract date.  Anything else would have to be
spelled out in the contract somewhere.  Just say you don't think that's how
it works and make them find the provision in the warranty that says
otherwise.)

Whenever someone says no with no recourse just ask for his/her supervisor.
If they refuse or the person is unavailable go back to the main
receptionist and ask for the name/address of the president (or at least the
head of the service/maintenance department.  Then write them a certified,
return-receipt letter that says you have a dead drive that should be under
warranty, but their company/department refused to fix it.  Threats are
pointless since they know no lawyer will touch a case this small.

I'm seeing more and more of this kind of nonsense these days.  It usually
*appears* to have more to do with ignorance on the part of low-/mid-level
employees than actual corporate dishonesty.  In any case if you get the top
level guys in the loop they have too much to lose to play those kinds of
games.  Also the company time it takes them to deal with you is more
expensive than a replacement drive would be.

It is *possible*, but unlikely, that the dealer is the one responsible in
which case the same tactics should work.
>
>> Here's my question... what should I expect when I get the mechanism apart?
>> Has anyone had one apart recently enough to know what to lubricate,
>> adjust, whatever, on a drive that won't even spin up on its own, and makes
>> clunking noises when spinning up before that (often taking a few hours to
>> successfully get running)?
>
>Do you have access to a clean room? The cleaner the better (like ones
>where you need full bunny suits). If you get ANY dust into this thing,
>it's really dead.
>
>I'm not sure what needs lubricating, but it's probably the bearings. You'll
>need some special lubricant (which is compatible with the lubricant on the
>whole of the disk).

Like Bill said you're hosed.  It *is* fun to take a drive apart and see
what it looks like.  But if you actually want the drive to work go back to
Quantum and get them to make good.

Also as I understand it what usually needs replacing on the old Quantum
drives is the coating on the platters themselves.  It serves the dual
purpose of preventing oxidation of the iron on the platters and limiting
the stiction of the heads when they land.  Over time (if kept warm from
operating) the coating turns sticky.

The clunking noises make it sound like something else.  If the spindle
bearings are going bad then the platters may be unstable enough that it may
not work even if properly lubricated.

I had an IBM drive in an SGI go bad a couple of years ago and was told that
drive's problem was not being designed for continuous duty.  You had to
de-spin it once in a while to let the lubrication settle back into the
reservoir or the spindle bearings would give out after two years or so.
SGI had a firmware patch to make this happen on the replacement drive.

YMMV

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