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From: nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: Hard Disks, Modems, & DOS
Message-ID: <346@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Feb-86 12:59:12 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.346
Posted: Sun Feb  9 12:59:12 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Feb-86 07:11:40 EST
References: <6891@duke.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 37
Summary: CMI strikes again

In article <6891@duke.UUCP>, ear@duke.UUCP (Eric A. Raymond) writes:
> I am interested in buying a 20M hard disk for my PC-Compatible. 
> Any suggestions?  I've noticed a number of ads for disk & controller
> kits for around $450 from various mail order houses.  Should I be wary
> of these budget deals?  Will they end up costing more in the long run?
> What about ads in which no brand name is given?  What about Seagate
> drives (i.e. the 225)?  Are there any problems with booting up from
> the hard disk?  What software (i.e. installation and formatting) is
> available? 
> 

Various mail-order houses handle hard disks differently, have different
brands at different times, etc.  I'd strongly recommend a phone call --
it's a small investment that can save you a lot later.  We have two big
outfits in Austin, and have bought hard disks from both.  At various
times I've gotten disks by Microscience, Tulin, Tandon and CMI from
Compuadd locally.  No troubles with any except the CMI, which trashed
itself and killed 2 weeks work about 2 weeks after I got it. (What? Back
up a *new* disk?  You must be kidding ...).  Compuadd was gracious enough
to promise a refund and took it back -- but couldn't replace it with
another brand, since they only have CMI disks at the moment.  [Guess what
happened to all the 20MB disks IBM didn't want to buy?]

PC's Limited presently is selling Seagate 20MB disks with controller and
software for $469.  I'm using one now, and it's fine.  One caution: they
do the low-level formatting themselves, to make sure it works OK, but are
using DOS 2.x to do it.  If you use the DOS 3.x Format program on it, you
will end up with 8K minimum file sizes.  If you are using DOS 3.x you
should first REMOVE THE DOS PARTITION with your "Fdisk" program, and re-
establish it.  3.x Format will then give you 2K minimum file sizes ...
much milder.

-- 
Ed Nather
Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
{allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather
nather@astro.UTEXAS.EDU