Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!mcnc!thorin!clocs!davis
From: davis@clocs.cs.unc.edu (Mark Davis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: ST225 outburst
Summary: Never buy version 1.00
Keywords: reliability, first production run.
Message-ID: <5362@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 16 Nov 88 15:06:05 GMT
References: <1757@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Sender: news@thorin.cs.unc.edu
Reply-To: davis@cs.unc.edu (Mark Davis)
Organization: University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lines: 36

In article <1757@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU> mcintyre@turing.cs.rpi.edu (David McIntyre) writes:
>This is not going to be pretty.  
>===> I MEAN THIS...DO NOT BUY A ST225.  ...

Well, it looks like the ST225 community splits nicely into two groups.
Either you like it or you hate it.  Unfortunately, it seems there are
ST225's and ST225's.  It appears that the worst complaints regard
drives manufactured more than 2 years ago.  ST 225's made then
apparently were substandard.  On the other hand, I see few complaints
regarding drives made recently.  (Note that most of the failures show
up within a couple of weeks, so we don't have to worry about recent
drives not being in service long enough.)  For example, I have a ST 238
(almost the same drive) purchased in Summer 86.  It has run flawlessly
ever since installation, with daily use.  I recommended the same drive
to my neighbor a year ago and his has also run well.

It appears that Seagate did not work out all of the bugs before they
went into production of the 225.  They took a big hit on their
reputation.  They are not the first ones to make such a mistake.
Hopefully, they will survive.  As David pointed out, some of the other
products are OK.  Even IBM uses them in some of the PS 2's.

More opinions:

1. An ST 225 is a good buy now.  Probably still worth buying a
preformatted and tested drive though.  Preformatted drives seem to add
about $30 to $40 to the cost.  For just a drive, (no controller), this
may not pay if you are willing to accept the hassle of returning a DOA
drive and pay the extra postage.

2. Seagate makes some good ones and some bad ones.  Don't buy one
unless you have heard the current reviews.  For example, I have heard
good things about 4096's.  I have not heard a thing about 251-1's,
although on this group, no news is probably good news.

Hope this helps - Mark (davis@cs.unc.edu)