Our 24/7 Technical Support team, with their extensive knowledge and experience, is always ready to assist our customers when they need us most. Here is an inside look at why you should run the Raw Data Disk (“RDD”) utility during each preventative maintenance (“PM”) to proactively predict RDD disk failures.
We recently had an international customer whose scanner had Image Data Disk (“IDD”) Manager and RDD issuesaffected the scanner’s functionality and led to a system that could not perform the needed tasks.
Our head engineer worked with them to diagnose the issue and discovered that bad RDD disks were the cause of the problem. RDD disk replacements were ordered from Richardson Healthcare. RDD setup and calibrations were performed to ensure proper functionality. Our team verified all hardware in the RECON box for proper IDD performance. In addition, a software reload was necessary on the display computer.
Understanding the importance of the RDD utility is crucial. If an RDD disk fails on a Canon/Toshiba Aquilion 16 or 64, a message will be displayed to the operator. Each RDD unit has five Raw Disks, four Data Disks, and one Parity Disk. An Aquilion 16 has one RDD unit, while an Aquilion 64 has four RDD units. The scanner will still run with one bad RDD data disk in each RDD unit but will not scan with two bad data disks in an RDD unit. If two RDD disks fail in one RDD unit, the scanner will not run, and the system is down. The scanner will also not scan with a bad Parity Disk.
The easiest way to predict RDD failures is to run the RDD utility and check for grown disk defects during each PM. If the grown disk defects are not equal to zero, the drive is reaching the end of life and should be replaced on the next PM, if not sooner.
Firmware revision is important when replacing the RDD disk(s). The replacement disk should have the same or compatible firmware revision level. Certain firmware revisions are compatible, but as a general rule, the replacement disk should have the same revision as the original. If you have questions about compatibility, our team can help.
Our technical support team was happy to help this customer work through confusion, diagnose the issue, and provide a step-by-step solution.
If you want to learn more about performing proper preventative maintenance, contact our team to learn about our CT Training Courses. Our comprehensive program gives students an overview of the Aquilion CT series and provides training in system operation, installation, preventative maintenance, calibration, diagnostic procedures, troubleshooting, and repair. Graduates will be able to meet and exceed all service requirements for the Aquilion CT platforms.
