Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!decvax!zinn!ditka!bucket!martyl
From: martyl@bucket.UUCP (Marty Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: LaCie disks -- "Well, how are they?"
Summary: 100 Meg Disk Comments
Keywords: disk drive, Macintosh, SCS
Message-ID: <1318@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 23 Mar 89 14:52:59 GMT
Organization: Rick's Home-Grown UNIX; Portland, OR.
Lines: 50

> I have a LaCie 20mb disk, just over a year old. Very reliable, SilverServer
> is great, comes with a cable etc - seems like a generally good buy.
> 
I have never gotten Silverserver to work right for me.  For now I've given up
and gone to Liaison.


> BUT
> 
> The damn thing is so noisy, at those high frequencies that really get under
> your skin, that I find it virtually impossible to work with the thing on - 
> so I load up a RAM disk and turn it off.  This pisses me off greatly because
> it takes away a lot of the benefit of having a hard drive AND LaCie 
> reassured me before I purchased that it was quieter than other drives. The

My 100 meg disk has a constant high pitch whine.  It never goes away, until
your ear develops a permanent frequency notch.  The whine is not from the fan
but from the drive.  After 5 minutes of operation I packed up my drive and took
it back thinking it was defective.  (I live in Tigard, OR, where La Cie is.)
I was also having problems with the disk not booting on power up too.  When I
got there one of the techs looked at my drive right away.  First he said the
drive must spin up to speed before the Mac II is turned on.  I said it let it
spin up for 1 minute.  Next he took the box apart and measured the +12 supply.
It was at 11.6 volt so he set it to 11.8 volts.  Don't ask me why, he just told
me it was suppose to be there.  Now the drive booted every time after a 20 sec
spin up interval.  BUT WITH THE COVERS OFF THE WHINE WAS EVEN LOUDER NOW!!
NOW THE WHINE HURT MY EARS AT A 3 FOOT DISTANCE!  I asked the tech about
the whine and he said ALL of the 100 megs are that way.  He suggested if I wanted
a quiet drive get the 80 meg.  He said I could exchange with in 30 days of
purchase, just bring in the box and all of the stuff inside.  After some
thought I decided to KEEP the 100 meg but, find a longer SCSI cord to locate the drive out of earshot.  I'm still experimenting but the cheap 25 conductor
RS-232 cables don't work.  The nicer (much more $$'s) cords with the shielding
seem to work much better.  Any suggestions for a 3 footer?

In summary the 100 meg drive has a whine that drive me crazy.  The drive is 
FAST, real FAST.  When the drive does a seek it is VERY QUIET.  In fact you
cannot tell it is doing a seek.  (A change from the Apple 40 meg)  I've given
up on SilverServer.  SilverLining works great though!!  The technical service
is great if your local, just walk in.  I like the nifty carrying case.  The
SCSI cord is too short.  (Just long enough to set it beside the monitor of
a Mac II.)  I would buy one again if I could find a longer, 3 foot, cord.



Marty Lee
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