"scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> > In theory, until the disks are spinning at full speed, you don't get that
> > "cushion of air" for the heads to "fly" on, which should result in wear.
> > Of course, no doubt manufacturers know all about this and have come up
> > with ways to at least reduce the problem...
>
> There's probably just a reserved portion of the platter that is used for
> spin-up/down operations.  The only tricky bit is to get the head over to
> that portion when the power is suddenly cut.

I think they don't park the heads on the platter any more, they're moved out of
the platter radius before spindown.
Moving the head out of the way in case of power failure is not so problematic
I'd think. The positioning coils of the heads are constantly under current and
cutting this current will create a force. You "just" have to make it so that a
power failure exerts a force in the head mechanism that whips the head into
park. ;o)

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