Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!usc!csun!srhqla!tcm
From: tcm@srhqla.SR.COM (Tim Meighan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Seagate 251 and RLL controllers
Keywords: RLL Hard Drive
Message-ID: <723@srhqla.SR.COM>
Date: 10 Jul 89 20:29:26 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Silent Radio, Los Angeles
Lines: 45

In article <5536@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> keithe@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM
(Keith Ericson) writes:

>In article <14998@ut-emx.UUCP> nghiem@walt.cc.utexas.edu
>(Alex Nghiem) writes:
>
>>My Seagate manual says your warranty is void if you use any Seagate
>>drive without an "R" on the end with an RLL controller. You should
>>use the ST251R instead of the ST251.
>
>And people wonder why Seagate is considered to be a "second rate"
>drive supplier!  It's because of these scare tactics, making the
>uninformed computer initiate think that there is some magic to RLL
>that will fry electronics, damage heads and warp platters if it's
>"done to" a non-RLL-certified drive.  Ptooey!

Well, let's be fair about this.  I really don't think that Seagate is
trying to "scare" us into thinking we'll ruin a 251 drive mech by hooking it
up to an RLL controller.  What they are saying is that they won't honor
the warranty on a drive mech USED AS AN RLL DRIVE that hasn't been certified
to have a platter surface capable of handling RLL encoding, which is, after
all, higher density than MFM encoding.

Note that failure of a drive mech isn't always mechanical failure; it could
be that the drive just doesn't read and write data reliably.  So, by telling
you not to use anything but a certified drive mech for RLL encoding, Seagate
is just trying to protect itself from legal hassles.

You may or may not agree with their policy of certifying specific drive
mechs as suitable for RLL encoding, and charging more for such drive mechs.
I think such a policy is reasonable, but it is certainly a matter of
personal opinion.  In any event, regardless of what you think of Seagate
and the quality of their products, this by itself hardly qualifies them
as a second-rate company.

BTW, it is extremely easy for a manufacturer to determine if a drive
mech has been formatted for RLL encoding, so Mr. Ericson's assertion 
that there is no way they would know if you did such a thing is untrue.
What were you going to do, Keith, a low-level MFM re-format of your
BROKEN drive so they couldn't tell it had once been RLL?  Good luck!  :-)

Tim Meighan
Silent Radio

"I've got one, two, three, four, five . . . . drive heads working overtime!"