Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:36791 comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d:4944 comp.misc:7168 comp.periphs:2195 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!psuvax1!gatech!emcard!dekalb!greg From: greg@dekalb.UUCP (Greg Philmon) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d,comp.misc,comp.periphs Subject: Don't buy from HDI Keywords: yet another horror story Message-ID: <754@dekalb.UUCP> Date: 23 Oct 89 13:22:37 GMT Organization: PC Systems Consultants, Atlanta, GA Lines: 52 A little note of warning for any in the hard drive market. Several months ago I purchased the Seagate ST296N/ST01 SCSI drive kit from Hard Drives International, a company I had heard good things about. Their advertisement promised "1 to 1" performance. The purchase was made, largely, on this claim as I needed a larger, faster hard disk. Specifying second day air, I called them a week later to see where the drive was. "We're out, expect some in a few days." Well it finally showed up about two weeks after being ordered (second-week air?). Then the problems really started. Telling DiskManager to format it 1:1 (as promised in their ads) brought terrible results. It seemed that 2:1 was the best it could do. But I foolishly refused to believe it, instead wondering what I was doing wrong. My old hard drive was already spoken for and I sold it when the 296N arrived. I asked around and someone suggested shorting the "0ws" (zero wait state?) jumper. "AH HA!" - so that's what I did wrong! I set it, backed up about 60 megs to disks (ugh), and had DiskManager give it another try. Nope - still couldn't do 1:1. What's the problem? Next I called Hard Drives International (not a toll-free call, BTW) and explained my problem to a tech rep. "Well," he replied, "you need to short the jumper labeled '0ws'." I told him I already tried that. "Then your computer is not fast enough to handle 1:1," was his next stab. I proceeded to tell him that I was running the drive in a 25MHz zero-wait 386. Guess what he said? "Well, you need a 33MHz machine." Oh my god, I can't believe I'm paying to talk to this guy. At that point I got mad and started spouting about truth in advertising and all that. He brought up the excellent point that he didn't write that ad. Finally he admitted that he'd never heard of the 296N/ST01 combo being able to achieve 1:1 interleave and he could transfer me to a customer service rep that could issue me an RMA. About a month ago I wrote a letter to HDI, telling them my problem. No reply has come. And the worst part is that their ads STILL flaunt the ST296N as being "1:1". That's a damn lie, simple as that. Anyway, I suppose this'll draw some flames, but I would NOT recommend HDI to anyone. Their ad was a lie, their technical support a sad joke, and their desire to please the customer amounted to "Do you want your money back or not? We've got other things to do." -- --------------------------------------------------------- | Greg Philmon ...gatech!dekalb!greg CIS: 72261,1724 | ---------------------------------------------------------