neese@adaptex.UUCP (05/01/90)
>>> There have been many postings here about Seagate hard drives >>>failing to spin up at boot. I have seen not ONE posting about >>>other brands that fail in the same manner. I don't think ANYONE wants >>>unfairly to bash Seagate. They generally have a marvelous reputation. >>>In all fairness and, not least, in the interest of acquiring data >>>to guide future purchases, IS ANYONE AWARE OF THIS OR EQUALLY ONEROUS >>>FAILURES AMONGST other MANUFACTURERS' HARD DRIVE OFFERINGS? >> >>Apple had a notorious time with the Quantum HD40's that were seizing >>in their machines because of a spindle lubrication design defect. >>Apple replaced these drives with a new Quantum HD40 that had >>a redesigned PROM which forced the lubricant to be spread >>in such a fashion to prevent seizing. > >An addition to that is that it's not ONLY the Apple HD40's (the Quantums that >Apple buy) but the Quantum P-40S, P-80S and it has hit the P-105S. The 40, >80 and 105 Mb Quantum ProDrives have manifested the infamous drive seizing >problem due to improper lubricant used on the drive spindle and head assembly. >It would not surprise me one bit if the IDE versions of the ProDrives (P-40AT, >et. al.) manifested the same problems. And Quantums have a 2 year warranty >and I've heard that if you buy them from a certain distributor you get a 5 >year warranty on it. Doesn't matter who you buy the drive from, you're going >to have some sort of engineering defect somewhere along the line. And since >Seagate bought out Imprimis and Maxtor bought out Miniscribe (this is the >rumor I heard) you're only left with a few other manufacturers that don't have >as good of a selection as the two current big manufacturers. > >My personal experience with Seagate has been good in general. My ST151 has >been working in my AT (now a 386SX) since October. My next drive, however, >will either be a Conner or Seagate Swift 3.5" IDE in the 100 Mb to 200 Mb >range. I haven't quite decided between the Conner or the Seagate Swift since >they are quite comparable in performance. WHOA!! Let's nip this in the bud right now! The problem Quantum had was due to a lubricant that was susceptible to high humidity conditions. The lube soaked up moisture and became glue instead of grease. Quantum has changed the lube to a new lube that handles humidity much better and has offered to replace each and every drive that shows the actuator stiction problem. And has done so. None of the drives in production for the last several months can have this problem. I have worked very closely with Quantum for years and also worked with them on this problem. They are very quality conscious and openly admitted what the problem was when it was defined. But unfortunately, the media had a field day before it was determined what the actual problem was. Quantum has always had a 5 year warranty on the PRO series of drives and will stand behind it. I know many hard drive manufacturers who would have hid the type of information that Quantum released to the public. Or have glossed over the real problem. The nature of the problem will only manifest itsefl in high (>60%) humidity areas, where the drive does very little seeking and is power cycled every day. I have one of the old drives with the potential grease problem, but have never had any troubles with it. Of course it runs 24 hours a day, so there is no chance of humidity effecting it. Adaptec has no ties with Quantum and I find them very reputable. Roy Neese Adaptec Central Field Applications Engineer UUCP @ {texbell,attctc}!cpe!adaptex!neese merch!adaptex!neese uunet!swbatl!texbell!merch!adaptex!neese
nghiem@ut-emx.UUCP (Alex Nghiem) (05/03/90)
In article <27800012@adaptex> neese@adaptex.UUCP writes: >WHOA!! Let's nip this in the bud right now! The problem Quantum had was due >to a lubricant that was susceptible to high humidity conditions. The lube >soaked up moisture and became glue instead of grease. Quantum has changed (deleted...) >The nature of the problem will only manifest itsefl in high (>60%) humidity >areas, where the drive does very little seeking and is power cycled every >day. I have one of the old drives with the potential grease problem, but have >never had any troubles with it. Of course it runs 24 hours a day, so there >is no chance of humidity effecting it. Our place is climate controlled. We too ran our Mac 24 hours a day to avoid the seizure. Last night, someone inadvertantly shutdown the Mac and let it cool down. Guess what happened? Our repairs are covered by Apple's recall. But, we have been told that the cut off date for the recall is 1 June 90. __________________________________________________________________________ This article is posted for discussion only. Any misrepresentation, if any, is purely unintentional. Any opinion expressed or implicit in these remarks are solely my own. nghiem@emx.utexas.edu !cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!nghiem nghiem@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu !cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf!nghiem
jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) (05/04/90)
neese@adaptex.UUCP writes: > >>>> There have been many postings here about Seagate hard drives >>>>failing to spin up at boot. I have seen not ONE posting about >>>>other brands that fail in the same manner. I don't think ANYONE wants >>>>unfairly to bash Seagate. They generally have a marvelous reputation. >>>>In all fairness and, not least, in the interest of acquiring data >>>>to guide future purchases, IS ANYONE AWARE OF THIS OR EQUALLY ONEROUS >>>>FAILURES AMONGST other MANUFACTURERS' HARD DRIVE OFFERINGS? >>> >>>Apple had a notorious time with the Quantum HD40's that were seizing >>>in their machines because of a spindle lubrication design defect. >>>Apple replaced these drives with a new Quantum HD40 that had >>>a redesigned PROM which forced the lubricant to be spread >>>in such a fashion to prevent seizing. >> >>An addition to that is that it's not ONLY the Apple HD40's (the Quantums that >>Apple buy) but the Quantum P-40S, P-80S and it has hit the P-105S. The 40, >>80 and 105 Mb Quantum ProDrives have manifested the infamous drive seizing >>problem due to improper lubricant used on the drive spindle and head assembly. >>It would not surprise me one bit if the IDE versions of the ProDrives (P-40AT, >>et. al.) manifested the same problems. And Quantums have a 2 year warranty >>and I've heard that if you buy them from a certain distributor you get a 5 >>year warranty on it. Doesn't matter who you buy the drive from, you're going >>to have some sort of engineering defect somewhere along the line. And since >>Seagate bought out Imprimis and Maxtor bought out Miniscribe (this is the >>rumor I heard) you're only left with a few other manufacturers that don't have >>as good of a selection as the two current big manufacturers. >> >>My personal experience with Seagate has been good in general. My ST151 has >>been working in my AT (now a 386SX) since October. My next drive, however, >>will either be a Conner or Seagate Swift 3.5" IDE in the 100 Mb to 200 Mb >>range. I haven't quite decided between the Conner or the Seagate Swift since >>they are quite comparable in performance. > >WHOA!! Let's nip this in the bud right now! The problem Quantum had was due >to a lubricant that was susceptible to high humidity conditions. The lube >soaked up moisture and became glue instead of grease. Quantum has changed >the lube to a new lube that handles humidity much better and has offered >to replace each and every drive that shows the actuator stiction problem. >And has done so. None of the drives in production for the last several >months can have this problem. I have worked very closely with Quantum >for years and also worked with them on this problem. They are very quality >conscious and openly admitted what the problem was when it was defined. >But unfortunately, the media had a field day before it was determined what >the actual problem was. Quantum has always had a 5 year warranty on the >PRO series of drives and will stand behind it. >I know many hard drive manufacturers who would have hid the type of information >that Quantum released to the public. Or have glossed over the real problem. >The nature of the problem will only manifest itsefl in high (>60%) humidity >areas, where the drive does very little seeking and is power cycled every >day. I have one of the old drives with the potential grease problem, but have >never had any troubles with it. Of course it runs 24 hours a day, so there >is no chance of humidity effecting it. > >Adaptec has no ties with Quantum and I find them very reputable. > > Roy Neese > Adaptec Central Field Applications Engineer > UUCP @ {texbell,attctc}!cpe!adaptex!neese > merch!adaptex!neese > uunet!swbatl!texbell!merch!adaptex!neese I don't buy it since we've had Quantum Pro-Drives return and manifest the same problem again within a month's time with a brand new drive. That was the last straw...I may not have purchasing power in the company...but I can choose not to support a product because I find it inferior. I had to RMA 10 Quantum Pro Drives within a 30 day time frame. That's one dying every 72 hours. 72 hour MTBF? This is pure bull. Some people in our company still like the name Quantum...but I tell the, you buy it, you troubleshoot and RMA it, I am NOT touching any Quantum hard drive. The only two I touch are the two in our Sun SPARCstation 1, and that's because I haven't been given the approval by my boss to chuck the two drives for an Imprimis Wren V or VI. And if the Sun on my desk dies from drive stiction seizing...the engineer at Quantum who is handling the RMA will be deaf by the time I'm finished. // JCA /* **--------------------------------------------------------------------------* ** Flames : /dev/null | Xenix is the ONLY thing ** ARPANET : crash!pnet01!jca@nosc.mil | Microsoft did right. ** INTERNET: jca@pnet01.cts.com ** UUCP : {nosc ucsd hplabs!hd-sdd}!crash!pnet01!jca **--------------------------------------------------------------------------* */