[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Seagate MTBF

stevel@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Steve Ligett) (07/25/89)

In article <428@mathrt0.math.chalmers.se> olle@molndal.ericsson.se (Olle Wikstrom) writes:
...
>I have been talking to the sales people at Gateway. They gave
>me this info: "the SCSI disk (ST297N w ST02 controller) is
>more error prune than the MFM disk (ST4096 w a DTC controller)
>and it is incompatible with OS/2 and network software." The SCSI
>drive also heats up quicker they claim. 
>
...
 To check this up I called the company
>"Hard Disks" and talked to a person there that appeared to
>be very competent. He said that they have never heard of 
>the problems that Gateway was talking about. Instead he said
>that the 296 had a MTBF of 35000h and the 4096 10000h. So he
>would say that the 296 was the best buy of these.
...
>Olle Wikstrom

I don't have any info about Gateway (well, I've read recent articles,
but I have no experience with Gateway), but I have the following info
from Seagate.  Here's a table of MTBFs for their drives:

Product                   Previous    Current
                          MTBF        MTBF
ST157 family              50000 hr    70000 hr
 (ST125, ST125A/N, ST138,
  ST138R/A/N, ST157R/A/N)
ST1096 family             40000 hr    50000 hr
  (ST151, ST177N, ST1096N)
ST225 family              50000 hr    100000 hr
  (ST225, ST225R/N, ST238R, ST250R)
ST251                     50000 hr    100000 hr
ST277R                    50000 hr    70000 hr
ST251N                    45000 hr    70000 hr
ST277N                    45000 hr    70000 hr
ST296N                    45000 hr    70000 hr
ST4096 family             30000 hr    40000 hr
  (ST4053, ST4096, ST4144R)

Where, for example, ST138R/A/N means ST138R, ST138A, and ST138N.
Steve Ligett       steve.ligett@dartmouth.edu or
(decvax harvard linus true)!dartvax!steve.ligett