Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!usfvax2!tscs!root
From: root@tscs.UUCP (Admin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: about Seagates...
Message-ID: <279@tscs.UUCP>
Date: 17 Feb 89 04:24:30 GMT
References: <2780@rti.UUCP>
Reply-To: gerard@tscs.UUCP (Stephen M. Gerard)
Organization: Total Support Computer Systems, Tampa, Florida
Lines: 37

In article <2780@rti.UUCP> cml@rti.UUCP (Carl Lewis) writes:
>
>The ST238R that I installed last week also came with zero hard defects
>and so far is purring and clicking happily away.  

That's a strange thing about Seagate drives, they never have many defects
recorded when the come from the factory.  This really makes me curious
about how well they test them.  Just about all of the Micropolis and
CDC (Imprimis) drives we have seen pass through our doors have multiple
defects listed, yet Seagates always appear to have less or none at all.
You can use Micropolis or CDC drives with RLL controllers with little
problems, yet the Seagates usually fail to perform to our satisfaction.
(Note: none of the drives mentioned are RLL rated)  The Seagate 4096
is Seagate's best drive, the half height models are best avoided if
financially feasable.  I will offer one other opinion, Seagate half
height drives are not the worst we have seen, Miniscribe gets the
award on pure garbage in the half height department.  I would never
trust my data to a drive that makes strange tinny sounding whirring
and clunking noises.

>
>I plan on some sensible backing up and on following the defensive
>maintenance procedures outlined in the article.  

Regardless of the drive, a regular full back-up is always good measure.
A decent tape drive helps to insure that back-ups are done in timely
manner.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
-------------------

It is better to WAIT until you have an extra couple hundred dollars to
spend for a "REAL" disk drive than to gamble with a cheapie!
Replacing the drive once, or the inconvienience of loosing data far
offset the extra dollars of initial investment.  Disk drive prices have
been dropping lately, you can buy a decent drive for much less than you
could a year ago.