3
24-hour Continuous Opera-
tion / Frequent and Contin-
uous Access to Hard Disk
If the hard disk is operated continuously for
24 hours, or frequently and continuously
accessed, pay attention to the following
points:
(1) If the same sector on the hard disk is
repeatedly used for R/W processing, the
head will be retained in the same track or
sector on the disk without moving over
the disk, resulting in uneven coating on
the disk surface. This causes a position-
ing error, disabling the R/W processing.
However, this problem will not occur in
normal Windows
®
-based operation. If
you specify continuous use of a certain
track or sector in DOS, the following
problems may occur.
[Possible problems]
• The hard disk has a fault.
• The system does not start.
• The system hangs up.
• Touch operation is disabled.
• The system restarts.
• Operation speed lowers.
(2) Frequent and continuous access to the
hard disk shortens the hard disk life
span, because the allowable head
loading/unloading frequency is 600,000
times.
Even if the hard disk has not reached the
end of its life span, the hard disk
operation may become unstable due to
its own heat generation. Furthermore,
incidence of rotation jitter increases,
causing head positioning errors. On rare
occasions, the hard disk cannot perform
normal R/W processing.
• If this problem occurs, turn off the hard
disk power supply and then turn it on
again after at least 10 minutes have
elapsed. The hard disk will be restored
to the normal operating condition.
• The above problem will not necessarily
occur with your hard disk. The inci-
dence of the problem varies consider-
ably depending on the operating
conditions. To avoid this problem,
reduce the frequency of accessing or
stop the motor for 10 minutes or longer
during each 24-hour operation period,
so that the hard disk can operate stably
at all times.
Possible problems vary depending on the
application being used. Particularly in
continuous data R/W processing at
intervals of 10 to 20 seconds the
incidence of problems will increase.
