martin@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Bill Martin) (08/08/90)
My 3+ year old Seagate ST-225 20-Meg drive has developed a 'head-seek' problem, according to the Rainbow Winchester diagnostics. Seagate will send me a refurbished 20-meg drive, with a 90-day warrantee, for $115 plus the old drive. Since several writers have mentioned past problems they've had with the ST225, I'm wondering if I should instead buy another larger drive (30 Meg or higher) and forget the trade-in described above. The new drives seem to be in the $300-$400 range, and the additional capacity might make the extra money worth it. Does anyone have an opinion about this ? -- Bill Martin -- Cornell University
bcw@rti.rti.org (Bruce Wright) (08/16/90)
In article <44253@cornell.UUCP>, martin@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Bill Martin) writes: > My 3+ year old Seagate ST-225 20-Meg drive has developed > a 'head-seek' problem, according to the Rainbow Winchester > diagnostics. Seagate will send me a refurbished 20-meg > drive, with a 90-day warrantee, for $115 plus the old drive. > Since several writers have mentioned past problems they've had with > the ST225, I'm wondering if I should instead buy another larger > drive (30 Meg or higher) and forget the trade-in described > above. The new drives seem to be in the $300-$400 range, > and the additional capacity might make the extra money > worth it. Does anyone have an opinion about this ? Frankly, I don't think I'd take an ST-225 as a gift. We had a whole series of them on a Rainbow and some PC's, and had _lots_ of trouble (including several that came back from Seagate under the deal you describe, going bad just past the 90 day mark). When you take into account the estimated life span of the drive (maybe 6 months?) and your time, $115 doesn't sound like getting off so cheaply. The drives we got back from Seagate consistently had shorter lifespans than new drives, not that new Seagate ST-225 drives have all that great a lifespan (!!). For what it's worth, I have heard that Seagate had some severe quality control problems with the ST-225 and that they are now "fixed". I'm not sure I believe this, since we heard similar things the whole time we were going through the 225 mess, but several people who "ought" to know have said that this does appear to be the case. This is not necessarily to bash all Seagate products - we have had much better luck with the ST-251 (a 40 MB drive), and I have heard that that drive has never had the sorts of quality control problems that the ST-225 production lines had. Good luck - Bruce C. Wright