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From: depolo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jeff DePolo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: miniscribe hardisk question
Keywords: miniscribe
Message-ID: <38732@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 5 Mar 91 04:52:43 GMT
References: <196@esun49.nms.gdc.portal.com>
Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu
Reply-To: depolo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jeff DePolo)
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 45

In article <196@esun49.nms.gdc.portal.com> chadbour@nms.gdc.portal.com (jeffrey chadbourne) writes:
>Recently somebody posted a summary of building a clone system, and the
>general consences was to stay away from Miniscibe hard disks. I've been
>using a Miniscribe 3650 in my AT&T PC6300 for almost four years, and I've
>never had any problems. 
>
>I was just curious as to the reasons why Miniscribe disks are to be avoided.
>Is there something wrong with their disks, or do they just not have a good 
>high end model.

Well, my experiences with Miniscribe has been varied.  Back in the
late 80's during the "clone wars", we used dozens of Miniscribes
without incident.  However, my last experience was with their 380 meg
SCSI drive (don't remember model, dammit).  It was a nightmare.

The first drive we had worked for about 3 months, then started getting
random seek failures.  A call to Miniscribe dictated we send it back
(under warranty).  They replaced it and shipped it back.  It worked for
about a week, then random data errors.  After futzing with SpinRite,
Norton Disk Doctor, etc., we called them again.  This time I brought
the drive up to Miniscribe myself (the place I was working is in
Denver, Miniscribe about an hour north of Denver).  Got a new one, which
worked for a few weeks, and then data errors again.  This went on
for about a total of 6 drives.  We finally have one that's been
up for about a year without failure.

Talking with the people at Miniscribe (this was right after a huge
layoff, by the way), I was told that almost all of their operations
are done in Singapore now.  Very little work is done in the US,
with the exception of the high capacity (high $) drives.  Low-capacity
drives sent to them under warranty get trashed and a new drive is
sent.  They hinted that the high-capacity drives get sent somewhere
(I don't think Singapore) to get fixed.  Since mine was under warranty, 
they just swapped it out.

Your milage may vary.  At one time, they were extremely good.  Now, 
I wonder if I had an isolated experience with a bad batch of one
single type of drive, or if it's indicative of their entire line.

							--- Jeff
--
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 Jeff DePolo  N3HBZ             Twisted Pair: (215) 386-7199                  
 depolo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu    RF: 146.685- 442.70+ 144.455s (Philadelphia)  
 University of Pennsylvania     Carrier Pigeon: 420 S. 42nd St. Phila PA 19104