n138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu (Brent Burton) (02/15/91)
Well, I recently bought a 7300 "lobotomized" of its hard drive. The owner sold the original 20M drive and used an external drive. Now, since I'm in the market for a new drive I'd like some help. After dealing many months with a bad Seagate SCSI model, I have wanted to have a list of drive manufacturers/models to avoid. So, what I want from the net is: * Have you had a drive fail on you? if yes, * What kind/model was it? * How old was it? * Do YOU think it was premature considering price, company claims, etc and NOT what the company thinks? * Did you tell that company? What kind of response, if any, did they have? I think that by compiling a list of notoriously bad mechanisms, future trouble and headaches can be avoided. I don't want a list of good drives. There seems to be more 'good' drives than 'bad' and by narrowing out one we may have more clues to the other. ---- I'll start. I have used a Seagate ST277N (SCSI 63MB) mechanism for over two years. I bought the first unit from Hard D. International and three weeks after, it started having "stiction" problems. I sent it back and HDI quickly shipped a new unit. It worked fine (except a growing whining noise) for about nine months, then stiction acted up again and the drive locked up a week after the original 1-year warranty. I called HDI who said "it's after one year, call Seagate." I called Seagate and they said, "we can sell you a new one or rebuild it. Rebuilding is $210 for this model." OK, rebuild it, I don't have money for a new one. I finally got that unit back a month later and it worked fine. This was exactly a year ago. NOW, this unit is beginning to have stiction problems and an obnoxious whining noise. During the past year, it has made noise off and on (always that whining noise) even though it never had lock-up problems or stiction. When the noise started, I called Seagate's tech support line, tested everything they suggested and I still had problems. I have written Seagate explaining the situation and have NEVER received a call or reply letter. I think I have been ripped off by Seagate because I certainly expect a hard drive that cost $450 (then) would last more than a year. I usually let the drive run constantly, but this only amounts to some 8,000+ hours a year. That's a pretty poor MTBF. Please, if you have had problems, send your story to me; I'll compile and summarize... your help's appreciated... +----------------------+--------------------------+ | Brent P. Burton | n138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu | | Texas A&M University | Computer Science/Physics | +----------------------+--------------------------+