>   As an addendum to the brake problem Boris Gjenero described to me hi
> solution--deactivate the head-positioning servo until the disk has spun
> I don't recall the details of where the connector is as I haven't done 
> surgury on my RD53s but I'm sure he'll chip in here soon enough.

FYI: I have three of these and the data is of no interest the drive fixed 
and usable is the goal.  Many of the fixes are of the spin it up and get 
the data...not enough.   

I'll say thank you for the information though.  Its clear the problem has 
not been troubleshot throughly.  I will proceed to open up the ones I 
have and see if it's head mecahnicals, spindle mechanicals, or drive 
logic.  My suspecion is drive logic either a resistor that changed value 
over time due to overheat or servo PLL that is losing lock due to 
componenet shift.  If I nail it down I'll post the results.  I'd kill
for schematics! ;-)

FYI: with basic care and non-magnetic tools you can open the hda!  I've 
done it with great success in the past.

Allison