dbercel%toto@Sun.COM (Danielle Bercel, MIS Systems Programming) (05/30/87)
I am on the verge of replacing my 10MB hard disk. I was
thinking about going to 20MB, but it occurs to me that, perhaps,
going to 30MB might be more cost effective, especially since
I know that I can fill up a 20MB disk immediately.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has been
using a 20MB or 30MB hard disk. What has your experience been
with the drive/controller you've purchased. I've recently
been reading a number of negative comments about the Seagate
St238 and would be especially interested in hearing about any
experiences with this drive.
I'll summarize and post the responses I receive.
danielle
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| Toto, I don't think this is Kansas. | -- Danielle Bercel
\-------------------------------------/ Sun Microsystems, Inc.moto@ucbcad.berkeley.edu (EDIF Committee) (05/31/87)
According to this months PC magazine, the diffference between a 20MB and 30MB drive is usually ONLT the controller. The 30MB uses RLL format while the 20MB uses the older MFM. Not all drives CAN use RLL controllers, but it seems that the seagate ST 235 is one that can. Thats why you see it advertised for both densities. I have an ST225 that has worked fine for a year if thats any reccomendation - too slow for a PC/AT, but fine for a PC-XT (65 ms access time) Mike .
anderson@uwmacc.UUCP (Jess Anderson) (05/31/87)
In article <20060@sun.uucp>, dbercel%toto@Sun.COM (Danielle Bercel, MIS Systems Programming) writes: ] I am on the verge of replacing my 10MB hard disk. I was ] thinking about going to 20MB, but it occurs to me that, perhaps, ] going to 30MB might be more cost effective, especially since ] I know that I can fill up a 20MB disk immediately. For very little more $, you can be in business ... ] I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has been ] using a 20MB or 30MB hard disk. What has your experience been ] with the drive/controller you've purchased. I've recently ] been reading a number of negative comments about the Seagate ] St238 and would be especially interested in hearing about any ] experiences with this drive. I bought an ST238 with an Adaptec 2070a controller last November for $454 with cables and power-cable splitter (from Cal-Abco) and put it in my Z-158. Installation, both mechanical and electrical, was a snap (would be for any handy-type person, I think), and the board takes care of soft formatting, making the software installation also very easy. I formatted it as one MS-DOS partition. Almost immediately I had done this, I began seeing problem reports on the net from people who had this combination, so I was very nervous for a while. However, if I understand things right, there was a troublesome spring that retracts the heads at power-down (I think Seagate later fixed that) such that at a later power-up, the heads were not quite where they should be. The remedy was to soft-format the disk again. Some people had to to this more than once. Whether by dumb good fortune or the fact that I turn the machine off only when thunderstorms are rolling through (a lot lately), I have yet to have *any* problem in six months plus a week, so I am quite pleased (but knock wood in any case). ] ] I'll summarize and post the responses I receive. ] ] danielle ] ] -- ] UUCP: {hplabs,decvax,}!sun!toto!{danielle,dbercel} ] COM: dbercel%toto@sun.com ] ARPA: dbercel@sun.arpa ] ] /-------------------------------------\ ] | Toto, I don't think this is Kansas. | -- Danielle Bercel ] \-------------------------------------/ Sun Microsystems, Inc. -- ==ARPA:===============anderson@vms.macc.wisc.edu===Jess Anderson====== | UUCP: {harvard,seismo,rutgers, (avoid ihnp4!) 1210 W. Dayton | | akgua,allegra,usbvax}!uwvax!uwmacc!anderson Madison, WI 53706 | ==BITNET:======================anderson@wiscmacc===608/263-6988=======
damour@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (06/02/87)
I also have been reading the negative comments about the ST238 and wondering
what happened. I used an IBM PC with a ST238 in the expansion module and
had no problems. (Other than getting the dang thing formatted to start with.)
I have since changed jobs but my old office has had no problems either and
the drive about a year old now. For what it is worth I thought it was a good
drive.
*****************************************************************************
damour@osiris.CSO.UIUC.EDU | Christopher D. Damour
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damour%osiris@UIUC.CSNET | (609) 562-3191/5325
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*********************Wheew! I'm glad that's done!**************************dbercel@sun.uucp (Danielle Bercel, MIS Systems Programming) (06/10/87)
In article <7700011@osiris> damour@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu writes: > >I also have been reading the negative comments about the ST238 and wondering >what happened. I used an IBM PC with a ST238 in the expansion module and >had no problems. (Other than getting the dang thing formatted to start with.) >I have since changed jobs but my old office has had no problems either and >the drive about a year old now. For what it is worth I thought it was a good >drive. > I'm wondering if the people with the new ST238s are having problems because of the RLL format being used and the old ST238s are problem free because they are not using the RLL format? danielle
dragon@oliveb.UUCP (Give me a quarter or I'll touch you) (06/10/87)
in article <20814@sun.uucp>, dbercel@sun.uucp (Danielle Bercel, MIS Systems Programming) says: > > I'm wondering if the people with the new ST238s are having problems > because of the RLL format being used and the old ST238s are > problem free because they are not using the RLL format? > > danielle I don't think that's the problem... to get 30 megs out of an ST238 one MUST use an RLL controller. The ST238 is the same physical layout as an ST225 (20 megabytes) but if used with an RLL controller, both yield about 30 megs. The 238 is advertised as being 'RLL' capable, supporting the increased performance demands placed on the drives by the RLL controllers. -- Dean Brunette {ucbvax,etc.}!hplabs!oliveb!olivej!dragon Olivetti Advanced Technology Center _____ _____ __|__ _____ 20300 Stevens Creek Blvd. | | _____| | | Cupertino, CA 95014 |_____| |_____| |__ |_____
dleigh@hplabsz.UUCP (06/11/87)
I wonder why so many people are having problems with the 238. I've had mine since September with absolutely no problems. My system is a 4.77MHz 100% compatible XT clone with an Adaptec 2070A controller. Every time I do a disk check I get NO bad sectors or errors of any kind. I imagine there must be bad sectors somewhere but the Adaptec controller is supposed to find these during the low-level format, and use some extra space that he disk has laying around to make these error invisible. My disk has been through a lot: thousands of miles in bumpy cars (with the heads parked of course), several defragmentations, and a lot of use. Still nothing. I do try to take care of the drive by parking the heads EVERY time before I power down (though I can't always do this if the system is locked up). Has anyone found any consitancies in ST238 problems? Is it possible that there are just some drives that are bad? Darren Leigh dlleigh@media-lab.mit.edu or dleigh@hplabs.hp.com