Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!njin!uupsi!sunic!news.funet.fi!hydra!cc.helsinki.fi!jupakkanen
From: jupakkanen@cc.helsinki.fi
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: IDE Drives and Controller Failures
Message-ID: <1991Apr21.215716.6081@cc.helsinki.fi>
Date: 21 Apr 91 21:57:16 GMT
References: <10676@hub.ucsb.edu> <1991Apr19.082206.1139@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Distribution: comp
Organization: University of Helsinki
Lines: 24

>>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.
> 
> 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.
>  

I guess he meant the controller in the drive, not the adapter. And it's
true that in case of a controller failure it's not so simple as with the
drives with separate controller. Anyway, it shouldn't be impossible to
replace the controller, or the defect part of IDE drives either..

Jukka