clive@drutx.ATT.COM (Clive Steward) (05/05/89)
How about this -- My PCPC MacBottom's been operating for most of the last year on it's finally reliable drive: they've given up on whatever model of 45 mb Rodime they were using, and gone to some Seagate model. Having gone through 3 of the others, I'm happy with the choice, though it's a bit noisy. I do think this sort of thing has to do with models more than manufacturers, as have heard good about Rodime and bad about Seagate elsewhere and vice versa. When they sent the item back, though, they apologized in a vague way; things aren't quite so smooth as before, must start drive first, etc.. And, as it did just now, the drive does something once in a while, by itself. I believe I've heard elsewhere that this is a periodic track recalibration. I worried at first, wondering what would happen if it occurred during access. But in a year of hard use, lots of long compiles where the opportunity existed, no problem, so guess it's properly synchronized with requests. Perhaps this is what's going on with some SE/30 drives as well. Clive Steward