[ILUG] Hardware queries

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Niall O Broin (niall at linux.ie):

> Just had a thought (after writing the above) and went over to the dead disk
> pile in which I find the following models of Deathstar drives
> 
> DTLA-307030 (x 3)

Those three -=are=- 75GXP.  (I said in error earlier that the 75GXP
series were 75 GB:  They were in fact 30-75 GB, depending on the number
of platters.  Sorry.)

> IC35L080AVVA07-0

82 GB IDE.  Not from the 60GXP or 75GXP series.

> IC35L120AVVA07-0

This one was a 120 GB IDE (from the 120GXP series of models).

> NONE of those are 60GXP or 75GXP, you may note.

Actually, it seems that exactly 60% of them _were_ 75GXP.  Thus my point.

> I had 8 x 75GXP in a box once, at least 5 of which failed over time.
> Justified by global statistics or not, I'm not giving IBM (or Hitachi,
> now) another red cent for disk drives.

     We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom
     that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits
     down on a hot stove-lid.  She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid
     again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold
     one anymore, either.    -- Mark Twain (Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar)

But if it'll make you feel better about your conviction, I've heard that
customer-support started sucking, the moment Hitachi took over the
operation:  People report that they get questioned on warranty
entitlement (being asked to send a sales receipt on grounds that Hitachi
has somehow lost the S/N database), and that turnaround time on warranty
drive replacement immediately went from stellar to absymal.

So, I'm looking mostly at Seagate for future SCSI drives.  For ATA?
Basically performance and robustness are going to suck, so WDC is as
good as any, generally.

-- 
Cheers,              "The front line of defense against such sophisticated 
Rick Moen            viruses is a continually evolving computer operating 
rick at linuxmafia.com  system that attracts the efforts of eager software
                     developers."  -- Bill Gates