Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!antonyc
From: antonyc@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Antony Chan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: IDE Drives and Controller Failures
Message-ID: <1991Apr20.213957.8952@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 20 Apr 91 21:39:57 GMT
References: <10676@hub.ucsb.edu> <1991Apr19.082206.1139@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Distribution: comp
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 29

umcarls9@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Charles Carlson) writes:

>In <10676@hub.ucsb.edu> 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) writes:

>>When the controller on my IDE drive failed, I discovered a
>>major flaw in IDE design (as far as I can tell)... lose the
>>controller and you lose the drive AND the data! Compare the
>>replacement of a $100 controller card with the replacement
>>of an $800 IDE drive... and the fact that the MFM drive still
>>has the data intact while your new IDE drive is virgin and
>>your data history unless (as you should be) you're backed up.

>I've heard weird things like that before, but haven't come across it.
>I've put different IDE ADAPTERS <the board in the computer is more 
>appropriately called an adapter, not a controller> on the same drive
>and never lost any data.

i think that the original poster's point was that if the 
*controller* failed (on board the drive) then you're s.o.l.

>One problem I have noticed though...Is a lack of compatability.
>Some adapters won't work in some machines, some adapters won't work
>with some hard drives. There seems to be no 100% followed guidline.
> 
this problem seems unlikely (although i'm not questioning that
you've had problems) since the adapters are more or less just
straight wires to the bus- maybe there are a couple of buffers
that dont work right, or maybe a different style floppy controller
could be the culprit.