Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!brianc
From: brianc@cognos.uucp (Brian Campbell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Seagate ST225 D.O.A.
Message-ID: <3037@cognos.UUCP>
Date: 19 May 88 16:27:32 GMT
Article-I.D.: cognos.3037
Posted: Thu May 19 12:27:32 1988
References: <2845@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <637@mccc.UUCP> <5746@pyr.gatech.EDU> <5363@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: brianc@cognos.UUCP (Brian Campbell)
Organization: Cognos Incorporated, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 27

In article <5363@cup.portal.com> jxh@cup.portal.com writes:
! Talking to Gary Simbulan at California Disk Drive Repair (he should know)
! leads me to believe that the Seagate ST-225 has a practical life of only
! two years (if that).  He showed me a STACK of dead ones, ALL of which had
! a nasty discoloration on one of the circuit boards, just under the monolith
! responsible for controlling the stepper motor.  He asserts that there is
! "no back-EMF protection", and that every time the positioner stepper starts
! and stops, the chip takes a little zot.  This evidently wears it out
! prematurely (surprise: I should have thought that it would make it fail
! at the factory!).

I would guess that for each "stack of dead ones", there is a much larger
stack of live ones.  There are an awful lot of ST225's out there.

! In their defense, I have been using mine lightly in a WYSEpc 286 for over
! two years with no untoward behavior.

I've been using mine extensively for about 2 1/2 years.  I am, perhaps, a
little surprised that it has lasted this long; it has been in constant use
24hrs a day, each and every day of those 2 1/2 years.  The drive is being
used on a Fido BBS complete with local and echomail message areas.

Perhaps I'm just lucky... I don't even have any bad sectors!
-- 
Brian Campbell        uucp: decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!brianc
Cognos Incorporated   mail: POB 9707, 3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, K1G 3Z4
(613) 738-1440        fido: (613) 731-2945 300/1200, sysop@1:163/8