jeff@wdl1.UUCP (Jonathan J. Jefferies) (08/20/88)
Hi, In response to your question I have a recent experience to relate. Please excuse the long winded response as I'm not sure what information is of interest to you. I just went through the excercise of buying a new disk. I too liked the specs on the Seagate 4096. I was replacing a micropolis 1304 (40 mega byte device. I looked for a decent price and wound up at USM in South San Francisco. A small local distributor. The price was $525. I paid my money and went home without any further adieu. It took me three days and a lot of sweat to convince myself that I had a lemon. Now this can happen anywhere and when I took the drive back USM tried to format it, found it couldn't and agreed to an exchange. This is probably the most expedient solution all the way around. This however, doesn't repay for the hours spent trying to find the problem. Unfortunately they didn't have anymore in stock and were to receive a shipment the next day. Well they did and I am to pick it up this evening. So I won't be able to tell you anything of a technical nature until I've tested it further. Moreover the disk is for a 68000 unix machine. Now what I've told you is a mixed bag. It seems all these machines are made abroad, a fact which became obvious when I scanned their (USM) storeroom. My cousin who manages a computerland store tells me that he routinely gets bad drives in shipments which then need to be returned to the distributor. It was for this reason that he suggested that I locate a local supplier rather than go thru his store in El Paso. I mention their being made abroad to indicate that I don't think looking for an american made product would be reasonable even if I thought american made would be any guarantee. On the plus side, I did make contact with the Seagate people who were most courteous and helpful and sent me some decent literature to supplement the meager sheets included with the drive. In summary I would say that when buying make sure the thing works. Ask the seller to format the drive for you just as a test that it will work for someone. This would have saved me several days and 160 miles of driving. As a comment I notice that USM is selling thje Seagate ST225 (60 megs/25ms/HH) for $199. Two of those might be a better deal than one 80 meg full height for $525. Good luck jeff@wdl1
pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg) (08/22/88)
The ST225 is a 20M 65ms drive, not 60M 21ms.
davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) (08/23/88)
I am getting this info from an article on Seagate from an investment standard, not from a stockholder's report. In article <4160010@wdl1.UUCP> jeff@wdl1.UUCP (Jonathan J. Jefferies) writes: | Now what I've told you is a mixed bag. It seems all these | machines are made abroad, a fact which became obvious when I scanned | their (USM) storeroom. My cousin who manages a computerland | store tells me that he routinely gets bad drives in shipments This is not unique to Seagate... I've had bad drives from Seagate, Priam, Miniscribe, Tulin, etc. Half of all Core disks I've gotten have been bad (this is joke, I have only had two ;-). Rather than believe that everyone is making crap, I believe that the carrier may beat the disks into failure, with some being better than others. | which then need to be returned to the distributor. It was for this According to the article, Seagate has both on shore and offshore plants. Seagate seems to own the offshore plants, rather than buying a disk made offshore and putting their name on it. | reason that he suggested that I locate a local supplier rather than | go thru his store in El Paso. I mention their being made abroad to | indicate that I don't think looking for an american made product would | be reasonable even if I thought american made would be any guarantee. I think that buying from a local dealer takes one more carrier out of the loop. The term "drop ship" has several meanings... | In summary I would say that when buying make sure the thing | works. Ask the seller to format the drive for you just as a test that | it will work for someone. This would have saved me several days and | 160 miles of driving. As a comment I notice that USM is selling thje | Seagate ST225 (60 megs/25ms/HH) for $199. Two of those might be a | better deal than one 80 meg full height for $525. The ST225 is 20MB, about 60ms access. Hopefully they are not claiming the figures you have. For information, according the _Computer Retailer News_, Seagate has 61% of unit sales and 62% of dollar sales in this country. That's more than all others combined. I would guess that this means the OEMs find them cost effective. I agree that they are not the most reliable drive on the market, but they seem to have a very good reliability after "infant mortality" when they're under warantee. Perhaps they don't ship well. -- bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa) {uunet | philabs | seismo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me
suppe@ge-dab.GE.COM (Dennis Suppe) (09/16/88)
I am considering buying a Seagate ST4096 80Mb hard disk for my 386 clone. Is anyone using this disk? How reliable is it? Thanks in advance, Dennis Suppe. -- Dennis R. Suppe <suppe@ge-dab.GE.COM> General Electric Simulation and Control System Department 1800 Volusia Ave, Room 4336 Daytona Beach, Florida 32015 UUCP: ...!mcnc!ge-dab.GE.COM!suppe Phone: (904) 239-2563
Sorceress@cup.portal.com (09/17/88)
I just replaced my Miniscribe 6053 with a Seagate ST4096. It went in easily and has shown no problems as yet (fingers crossed). Make sure that they do not ship it UPS and that you get the DiskManager software than comes with it. Mine cost $650.
ldh@hcx1.SSD.HARRIS.COM (09/20/88)
>I just replaced my Miniscribe 6053 with a Seagate ST4096. It went in easily and >has shown no problems as yet (fingers crossed). Make sure that they do not > ^^^^^^^^^^^ >ship it UPS and that you get the DiskManager software than comes with it. Mine >^^^^^^^^^^^ Actually the real problem is not UPS but any ground based carrier. UPS blue/red air are both better for the drive ... Leo Hinds