Sounds of the PTI PT-357R

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Peripheral Technology Inc. PT-357R
Country of Origin: Taiwan(?)
Introduced: Q4 1990(?)
Interface: ST-412HP (RLL2,7 nominal)
Capacity: 46MB
Form: 3.5 HH (1")
CHS: 612 / 6 / 26
LZN: 613
WPC: 65535
Track-track: 10.9ms
Linear access: 26.3ms
Random access: 39.7ms
Rotational: 3600RPM
Media: Semimetallic, offset TF heads
Disks: 3
Actuation: Rack and pinion brushless DC servo motor
Feedback: Optical servo encoder + On-surface pulses
Lift/Lock/Park: Automatic parking, shipping lock solenoid
Brake: Dynamic
Service life: 5 years / 25,000 hours
Related models: PT-225 (2 disk, MFM); PT-338 (MFM); PT-238R (2 disk); PT-357A (ATA); PT-357S (SCSI-1)
Failures: The actuator rack is driven directly by the shaft of the actuator motor using a spline rather than a proper gear mesh. Due to conditions such as a stiff rail, faulty solenoid lock, or misalignment, this may cause the pinion to grind against the rack and chip or damage it, as well as the pinion. This also causes the optical encoder to be out of alignment and can cause the drive to fail it's seek test.

Settings: http://aioinc.ddns.net/HOST/TH99/h/tx...

My thoughts:
This drive is a strange one. It appears as a cross between a Tandon TM-262 and a Microscience HH-325 almost, having the pigtail power connector and angled actuator motor of the HH-325 with the gold colored lid and L-clip retainers of the TM-262. The scarcity of these drives and information on them implies that they were either very unpopular or very unreliable, and through my experience with this unit, I am inclined to believe the latter. This drive came to me nonfunctional with no less than 4 "Warranty Void" seals on the lid, implying that the drive was probably sent to be repaired at least 3 times during it's warranty period before it was retired. It is incredibly temperature sensitive and will fail a seek test below 65*F. It appears that the drive is designed to have an automatic parking feature during power off, but mine does not seem to work. This drive has many problems, and I'm not entirely sure if they're mechanical or electronic in nature.