UNIXpc still acting flaky - any advice?

[David Mundhenk]

My crusty old UNIXpc is _STILL_ acting flaky.
I treat it very nicely, although I don't power it up
as often as I'd like... |-}
I don't want it to sound like I'm whining, I just would like
the experienced opinion of some of you gurus out there as to
what might be the source of my problems.
A little history, though some of you may remember my previous 
postings. I have a UNIXpc model 7300 with 512K motherboard,
512K RAM expansion, used (old) CDC 30 MB hard disk.

Symptoms are as follows:
1. Several weeks ago, the root filesystem got trashed and I
   opted to do a full restore. I had been suspicious of the fact
   that when I got the full height case and replaced the Minisnail
   3425, I tossed the metal shield that covered it. I was advised
   to replace this to avoid RF interference from the monitor. I have
   since covered the drive with a thin sheet of lead (my father-in-law
   used to bottle his own wine...).  I'm wondering if this has helped
   or hindered, possibly causing it to overheat.
2. When formatting the hard disk, the format goes fine, but the
   surface check seems to come up with a few to very many bad blocks...
   (Error on Re-Read:Response = 10,Start Block = [????] )
   I have re-run this numerous times now and seem to always get a
   _different_ set of bad blocks each time.
3. When adding bad blocks to the bad block table, some go OK then I
   got a "can't recal..." error. Returning to the menu, and starting 
   the format process *again*, it says "this disk is not formatted."
4. If I go as far as loading the foundation set, it never gets past
   disk #1. On #2 it says the diskette is inserted incorrectly, or the
   door is not shut. I've tried this with several copies of disk #2 and
   with different sets of foundation diskettes.
5. When rebooting the machine, it sometimes gets into a loop, saying
   "searching hard disk *****"
   "searching floppy disk #####"
   "searching hard disk *****"
   "searching floppy disk #####"
   ad nauseum....
   If I turn the power off and on several times, it will 'catch'.
6. I even went as far as putting in the new WD2010 chip I bought in
   anticipation of a future *larger* disk. If anything, the problems
   were multiplied. Is this chip fussier with a 'marginal' or slower
   hard disk?

I guess it's time to break down and buy a new hard disk. I've seen 
some very good deals on CDC 94155-85's (8 heads, 1024 cylinders, ~28 ms.)
and ST-251-1's, so maybe I get one of those. 
Anyone interested in a very *tired* CDC 94155-36,  _CHEAP_!   ?

Dave Mundhenk
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