Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!oliveb!tymix!antares!pnelson
From: pnelson@antares.UUCP (Phil Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Seagate.
Summary: My ST-125 stuck too
Message-ID: <475@antares.UUCP>
Date: 9 Jul 89 21:24:36 GMT
References: <8907020047.AA15716@lilac.berkeley.edu> <3671@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <10403@polya.Stanford.EDU> <3687@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <20260@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: pnelson@antares.UUCP (Phil Nelson)
Organization: Tymnet QSATS, San Jose CA
Lines: 50

In article <20260@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes:
|Re: Seagate drives ...

|My own experience with Seagate is extremely negative.  EVERY single one of
|the ST251 drives (10 of them) failed with the "stiction" problem after 15
|months of service ... out of warranty.  When the drives are spinning, they
|work OK, but power them down and ... fooey.

|Seagate manufacturing consistently has the problem with their plated media
|drives in both the 5-1/4" and 3-1/2" format; a LOT of reports are now coming
|in stating startup problems with the ST138/ST157 drives.  You can find these
|reports in many of the Usenet newsgroups, at dealers' shops, at user group
|meetings, etc.   Even the ST-4096 is plagued with the stiction problem as
|stated many times by the Customer Service Rep of JDR MicroElectronics at
|FAUG meetings in answer to questions from the floor.

|If you can get the drive spinning, it will operate fine (as my own tests have
|proven.)  But many people simply don't have the knowledge or the ability to
|remove their drives, diddle the stepper shaft, reinsert the drive and power
|up.


Thanks Thad, for a very informative article. I have two Seagates in my 2000,
a ST138R and a ST125. The 138R is older (1-2 years) and has been trouble
free. The ST125 is newer, and has stuck once, after I parked the heads and
shut down for a weekend. It hasn't stuck since, because I don't shut it
down except when absolutely necessary, and then only for a short time, and
I don't park the heads (finally, an advantage to not having automatic
head-parking :-).

I used to run a Microscience HH725A with severe sticking problems, I bought
it as-is for $50. from one of the shops you mentioned (yes, they told me
what I was getting). It ran well, but got more and more difficult to start
as time went on. I finally replaced it with the Seagate ST125. I am not mad
at the people who sold me the as-is HH725A, but I am mad at Seagate for
selling new 125s with this problem. Since I do not have the time to pursue
the matter further with Seagate, my response to the situation is never to buy
another Seagate product.



|
|Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]


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