ABN.CAMO@usc-isid@sri-unix.UUCP (08/25/83)
I've been running a Morrow Decision I, Z80, 64k, 8"DSDD flopy, 5Meg HD since January, on the average 4-5 hours every day (and often long sessions of 16-18 hours straight). Summer temperatures 100 degrees +. Cheap floppies. Poor electrical current and no isolators. No mainten- ance. Cheap rug with lots of static electricity. Cats, cigarette smoke, strange public domain software that makes peculiar noises inside your hard disk (only once!). Primitive backup procedures (copy the entire hard disk to floppies every week). Tens of thousands of disk reads and writes. Never, NOT ONCE, no single event of failure to read ONE SINGLE BYTE! (Exception: dirt in borrowed disk wore away 1/4 inch of floppy -- couldn't read that!). I disagree with the statement that Morrow hardware gives problems. I've had my incandescent bulbs dim out, yet the good old Morrow didn't even lose its memory, much less fail in a disk write. I don't sell Morrow gear (or anything for that matter) and have no interest inthe company -- but I surely would buy another, given ANY alternatives and a couple thousand more dollars extra! David Kirschbaum, ABN.ISCAMS at USC-ISID
fylstra.tsca@sri-unix@sri-unix.UUCP (08/26/83)
I have to second David Kirschbaum's comment on Morrow equipment. My Disk Jockey 2D controller (rev 0) and 32K RAM board have *NEVER* failed over a period of several years of daily use. Moreover, the DJ2D came with complete source for the BIOS, the controller PROMs, and the formatting utility. Dave Fylstra
MDP@SU-SCORE.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP (08/28/83)
From: Mike Peeler <MDP@SU-SCORE.ARPA> A morrow pc gives new meaning to the promise to do your work "on the morrow". -------
rconn@brl@sri-unix.UUCP (08/29/83)
From: Rick Conn <rconn@brl> I own a Morrow M10 hard disk drive with a Morrow controller, having purchased it last Jan. I haven't looked at the design of~ the circuitry to speak of, and I simply plugged the controller into my S-100 motherboard and modified Morrow's BIOS to my liking. After almost 8 months of use now, often running 6 hours a day (including Sat and Sun), I have had absolutely no problems with it at all. I have found it to be very, very reliable. Rick
SEARS.HP-HULK@rand-relay@sri-unix.UUCP (08/30/83)
From: Bart <SEARS.HP-HULK@rand-relay> I have been using a Morrow M26 hard disk system for a year now. It is on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a 4 person multi-user system. It has never had any problems and never lost any data. I have alsoused a Morrow DJ and never had any problems with it. I consider morrow disk systems to be some of the most reliable on the market. Bart -------
strom@brl-bmd@sri-unix.UUCP (08/30/83)
From: Charlie Strom (NYU) <strom@brl-bmd> I was not going to join the fracas, but all the comments have sucked me in at last. I personally have no Morrow experience but have heard of several people who purchased the HDCDMA and 16Mb drive from Priority One in a recent sale and had nothing but trouble. One fellow had to send the controller back and Morrow kept it for several months! The boards apparently run very hot and simply are not engineered properly. This experience echos Lauren's comments.
lauren@lbl-csam@vortex.UUCP (08/30/83)
From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@lbl-csam> I have never used the Morrow system in question, but I can make two general comments: 1) Every experience I have ever had with *any* Morrow hardware has been a *total* disaster. I'm not alone in this, apparently. In fact, someone I know just recently got burned by some Morrow equipment he bought without knowing any better. Enough said. 2) Some callers have mentioned some rather "odd" facts about the the system under discussion. While I don't have the details, I'm told that the system has a large number of limitations, and (interestingly) runs CP/M programs much faster than "Unix" type programs. I've heard about this speed difference from several different people -- all of whom subsequently decided not to buy the equipment. The *effect* seems to be that their "Unix-like" features exist as an emulation *above* CP/M, regardless of the reality of the actual implementation. The keyword "slow" seems to be mentioned quite a bit in regards to the "Unix-like" features of this unit. For the kind of money that thing costs, I would think that an IBM-PC running Coherent would be a better buy. --Lauren--
4341mrz@houxn.UUCP (09/01/83)
If I could draw some conclusions from the discussion about Morrow products, it seems that they do a better job on a complete system than peice parts. I can not whole heartedly endorse Morrow since the udesision that I bought had a cranky disc but the price and performance of the system seems very good. By the way the disc problem has seemed to heal itself. No more problems. Mike Zboray
RG.JMTURN%MIT-OZ@mit-mc@sri-unix.UUCP (09/02/83)
I've owned a MicroDecision since January. I don't back up disks. I've never had a disk error. Not one. I keep my disks on top of my answering machine, without covers. Not a seek error, not a read error, nothing... Gentlemen, the word is boat-anchor. James
GRUPP@mit-mc@sri-unix.UUCP (09/05/83)
From: Paul R. Grupp <GRUPP@mit-mc> One more for the survey... I have 2 M20s. Both on 12-18 hrs/day for 1.5 years, and NEVER a bad bit. When I was writing the bios I sent bad commands to the controller that should have munged the disk, but not a problem... It just keeps on... --Paul