Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!seeger
From: seeger@beach.cis.ufl.edu (F. L. Charles Seeger III)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Crooked mail-order hard disk company
Summary: ST225 != ST238
Message-ID: <18161@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 13 Sep 88 14:02:40 GMT
References: <6522@megaron.arizona.edu> <211@pigs.UUCP> <677@ttrde.UUCP> <11 <8995@cup.portal.com>
Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU
Reply-To: seeger@beach.cis.ufl.edu (F. L. Charles Seeger III)
Organization: UF EE Dept
Lines: 14

In article <8995@cup.portal.com> Ordania-DM@cup.portal.com writes:
| (The difference between MFM and RLL drives is the fact that the manufacturer 
|says one will work with RLL and the other won't... the ST225 and ST238 are the
|same drive!)

No!  The ST238R uses plated media, while the ST225 uses oxide.  Plated is
better because it is harder.  Therefore, if a R/W head bounces off the
platter surface, there is less chance of permanent damage to the surface
and less chance of oxide particles being scrapped off, which can then
crash the head somewhere else.  For the meager difference in price, the
added safety of plated media is a big winner in my book.

Regards,
Chuck