1.) Inspection
All drives are physically inspected to insure that there
is no damage to the drive. Depending on the damage, the
drive may not be re-certified. This re-certification program
is not offered as a 100% yield program.
2.) Cleaning/light repair
The disk drives are then cleaned with compressed air to
remove any dirt, dust, or loose oxide.
Tape
drives are cleaned with isopropyl alcohol and compressed
air. Any marks or end user stickers are removed.
DAT drives: The drive is thoroughly blown out with compressed
air and then a cleaner cartridge is ran through it.
QIC drives: The drive is thoroughly blown out with compressed
air and the R/W head, capstan, and rollers are cleaned with
isopropyl alcohol.
DLT drives: The drive is thoroughly blown out with compressed
air and the R/W head is removed and cleaned with isopropyl
alcohol along with the tape path and machine take up reel.
The leader is then replaced.
3.) Test & Advise
Test
& Advise procedure (disk drives)
First, the technician takes the device to the test bed for
Triage.
Triage consists of Power Up, Spin UP, and a SCSI bus scan.
If the device fails, the device is considered bad.
If the
device passed Triage, the Quick QC test is performed. This
procedure will test all drive functionality over a sample
block range that covers the entire drive. Positioning, writing
and reading are all verified by writing and verifying 1000
blocks at the beginning, middle, and end of the drive. The
results are then printed out.
Once
7 devices have passed the QC test, the Confidence Test #2
is performed. This test first sets the PER bit (Post Error,
MODE SELECT). With this bit set, the drive will report any
corrected errors to the host. Then the entire drive is written
with two worst-case data patterns and the data is read back
and compared. Finally, 10,000 random seeks with reads are
executed. The results are then printed out.
If the device passed the Confidence Test #2, the Verify
Media test is performed. This test issues a SCSI verify
command to the device to check the CRC and ECC bits of each
block on the device. This test runs sequentially across
the disk until it reaches the end of the disk. The results
are then printed out.
If the
device passes all 3 tests (QC, Confidence, and Verify Media)
error free the unit is considered good.
Test & Advise procedure (tape drives)
First, the technician takes the device to the test bed for
Triage.
Triage consists of POST, Loading a tape, a SCSI bus scan,
and f/w rev. check.
If the device fails, the device is considered bad.
If the
device passed Triage, the Quick QC test is performed. The
quick QC test exercises every function of the tape drive.
The test progresses in the following order:
Rewind tape
Write blocks of data to tape
Write a File Mark
Rewind tape
Read blocks of data from tape
Space Reverse to beginning of tape
Space forward to File Mark
Rewind tape
On completion of the Quick QC test the tape is unloaded
and the f/w is upgraded if needed.
The
drive is then returned to the test bed for more intensive
testing.
The
Quick QC test is performed again. If the drive passes, the
Sequential Write test is then performed. This test writes
to every block on the tape media until end of media is encountered.
Then the Sequential Read test is performed. This test reads
every block on the tape, until either a Blank Check (End
of Data) or End of Media is encountered.
If the
device passes all 3 tests (QC, Sequential Write, and Sequential
Read) error free, the unit is considered good.
