[comp.sys.sun] Cheap SCSI disks

vsh@uunet.uu.net (Steve Harris) (08/11/89)

We are planning to purchase a bunch of cheap, small SCSI disks to convert
our diskless clients to dataless systems.  We are looking particularly at
the disks sold into the PC and Mac market.

We are currently running 3.4 and 3.5 on 3/110s, 3/50s, and 3/60s.  (We
have several SPARCstations on order, and expect to migrate to the SPARC
architecture over the next year or so).  We are planning to upgrade to
4.0.3 in the near future (we have it running on a couple systems in the
lab, once we are comfortable with it, I will make my own install tape and
load it onto all the systems on our net -- suninstall is sooooo slow!)

I have seen postings from several people who have had (mixed) success with
small SCSI disks, but have had bad luck reaching them via email
(roxanne@astral, ehrhart@sri.com, green@hellcat -- are you out there??)

So, to all you sun-spotters out there:  have you had any experience (good
or bad) with cheapo SCSI disks?  If so, please send me email, addressing
the following questions.  I will summarize, as well as report on our
experiences in this experiment.

Thanks in advance.

Steve Harris -- Eaton Corp. -- Beverly, MA -- uunet!etnibsd!vsh

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

	Questionnaire

If you are using "cheapo" disks:

	Under what rev. of SunOS?
	What type of Sun system? (3/xxx, 4/xxx, etc.)
	How did you format the disks?
		(they came formatted; 4.0 format; 3.x diag)
	How are they used (just swap?? tmp?? home directories??)  
	Is the performance acceptable?
	What was the unit cost?  (how many did you buy?)
	Any recommendations?  Problems?

If you decided against using the disks, why?

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

jtwarden@pawl.rpi.edu (Joseph T. Warden) (08/23/89)

In article <796@brazos.Rice.edu> etnibsd!vsh@uunet.uu.net (Steve Harris) writes:
>X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 95, message 10 of 11
>
>We are planning to purchase a bunch of cheap, small SCSI disks to convert
>our diskless clients to dataless systems.  We are looking particularly at
>the disks sold into the PC and Mac market.
>
>So, to all you sun-spotters out there:  have you had any experience (good
>or bad) with cheapo SCSI disks?  If so, please send me email, addressing
>the following questions.  I will summarize, as well as report on our
>experiences in this experiment.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>

I would be interested in receiving copies of your responses as well. I
have suffered the second failure of the 141 MB drive (Micropolis) in a
3/50 shoebox in the past 12 months. Needless to say, I am not too happy
with Sun or Micropolis. I think two defective diskdrives in the space of
one year is unacceptable.

Joseph Warden
RPI

E-mail to jtwarden@pawl.rpi.edu

-or-

BITNET: usera89v@rpitsmts

ajayshah@alhena.usc.edu (Ajay Shah) (01/20/91)

I'm looking for places which sell cheap SCSI disks, which can be plugged
into a SLC or a SparcServer 1+ or so.  I'm planning on doing 2 x 670Meg
but a cheap disk of around 1G would be fun.  Are there any glitches in
connecting these disks into my machines of interest?  (SLC and SparcServer
1+)

Ajay Shah, (213)734-3930, ajayshah@usc.edu

saustin@bbn.com (Steve Austin) (01/29/91)

ajayshah@alhena.usc.edu (Ajay Shah) writes:

->I'm looking for places which sell cheap SCSI disks, which can be plugged
->into a SLC or a SparcServer 1+ or so.

I would advise anybody looking for hard disks to buy a copy of Computer
Shopper magazine.  Just skimming through, I see a 1G Seagate disc for
$3000. In fact, if you are buying anything but the most high-end computer
stuff, it's worth investing $3 for this.

	Steve Austin