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From: gk@kksys.UUCP (Greg Kemnitz)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: disk drive life expectancies
Message-ID: <303@kksys.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 5-Sep-87 03:08:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: kksys.303
Posted: Sat Sep  5 03:08:30 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Sep-87 09:45:19 EDT
References: <1118@gilsys.UUCP>
Reply-To: gk@kksys.UUCP (Greg Kemnitz)
Distribution: na
Organization: K and K Systems, Minneapolis
Lines: 59
Keywords: MTBF, power cycling, lifespan

In article <1118@gilsys.UUCP> mc68020@gilsys.UUCP (Thomas J Keller) writes:
<....Take the Seagate ST-225 piece of trash, for example.  A very popular
<drive, largely due to its low price, this drive has a 4000 hour MTBF....
<
<Tom Keller 
<VOICE  : + 1 707 575 9493
<UUCP   : {ihnp4,ames,sun,amdahl,lll-crg,pyramid}!ptsfa!gilsys!mc68020

Actually, from the info I have it appears the ST-225 has a very
respectable 20,000 hour mtbf....  I am including a copy of part of an earlier
posting which may help to clarify this:

<Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.misc
<Subject: Re: Leaving AT on overnight (good/bad)
<References: <1246@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <768@custom.UUCP> <2348@trwrb.UUCP> <410@polyslo.UUCP>
<Reply-To: gk@kksys.UUCP (Greg Kemnitz)
<Distribution: usa
<Organization: K and K Systems, Minneapolis
<
<In article <410@polyslo.UUCP> npollack@polyslo.UUCP (Neal Pollack) writes:
<>>   Unfortunately, many of the  winchesters  used  in  the  PC  and
<>>   small-UNIX  machines  only  have a MTBF rate of ~3000 hours.  A
<>> -- 
<>> 		Marc A. Ries
<>NOT TRUE;
<>
<>While I too have seen a few small winchesters die at around 3000 hours,
<>most are rated for 5 years life span.  If you look at the OEM hardware
<>manual for seagate drives, of which I own one, the entire series is
<>rated at a MTBF (failure time) of approx 25,000 hours.  That is more than
<>3 or 4 years at 24 hours a day.   Turning it on or off each day during
<>this same time would provide more than 1000 takeoffs and landing for
<>potential crashes, near misses, presidential fly bys, etc. :-)
<
<I recently received a brochure from Seagate which gives specs on their
<current drive lines... It shows the ST125, 138, 213, 225 and 251 as
<having a MTBF of 20,000 hours, and the ST4026, 4038, 4051 and 4096 as
<having a MTBF of 15,000 hours.  At 20,000 hours, this would be about 2
<years and four months... at 15,000 hours it works out to a bit under
<one year and nine months, assuming 24 hour a day operation.
<
<They -do- list the drives as having a service life of five years, and
<a mean time to repair (MTTR) of thirty minutes.
<
<>| Neal S. Pollack		|    ...!ihnp4!csun!polyslo!npollack	      |
<>| Computer Systems Lab	|    ...!{csustan,csun,sdsu}!polyslo!npollack |
<>| Cal Poly State Univ.	|    ...!ucbvax!voder!polyslo!npollack	      |
<>| San Luis Obispo, CA  93407	|    Voice: (805)-546-2147                    |
<
<
<Greg Kemnitz          |   ...!amdahl \
<K and K Systems       |   ...!ihnp4   !meccts!kksys!gk
<P.O. Box 41804        |   ...!rutgers/
<Plymouth, MN  55441   |  AT&T and clones:  (612)475-1527

If anyone would like a copy of the Seagate drive brochure, I have
several extras and will gladly forward one to you via USsnail.

As my .signature file is included above, I will not repeat it...