Re: ATA disks and controllers (was: Hoss Traders)
Rich C [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: From: Ken Ambrose [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Benjamin Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Greater NH Linux Users' Group [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 6:43 PM Subject: Re: ATA disks and controllers (was: Hoss Traders) darn close to a DOLLAR a GB. Which is just obscene. ;-) No, what is obscene is that I paid TWO DOLLARS per MEGABYTE for a 500 MB Fujitsu drive back in 1994. Ha! The first disk drive I bought was a dual sided 8 floppy from MFE for $750. Pretty close to a dollar a KILOBYTE. - Jim Van Zandt * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
ATA disks and controllers (was: Hoss Traders)
On Wed, 1 May 2002, at 10:35am, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Of course, if the system Ben is bringing has a CD burner, we can burn there as well. It does have a CD burner. As of last night, it does not, unfortunately, have a hard disk. I'm hoping to pick one up after work today. Since I need it in a hurry, it is going to be ATA, not my usual SCSI. BestBuy does not stock SCSI. :) Given the way prices have fallen on ATA drives (and not SCSI) while performance has increased, I am thinking ATA is a better choice at this time anyway. So, does anyone have any opinions about ATA hard disks? I am looking at the 80 GB Western Digital model WD800BB: http://www.wdc.com/products/current/drives.asp?Model=WD800BB The only other alternative I am likely to find at a local shop appears to be Maxtor, and both the specs and the warranty are not as good for the Maxtor as they are for the WDC units. My motherboard has a High-Point HPT370 ATA controller built-in. Does anyone know if this controller works with Linux? Do I need a special driver? Are there any special tweaks I should use to make it perform well? I have never even hooked anything up to it before now. Any pointers appreciated. :-) -- Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not | | necessarily represent the views or policy of any other person, entity or | | organization. All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
Re: ATA disks and controllers (was: Hoss Traders)
On Wed, 1 May 2002, Benjamin Scott wrote: So, does anyone have any opinions about ATA hard disks? I am looking at the 80 GB Western Digital model WD800BB: Western Dig. used to be the choice disk maker, however recently they've been suckin' as bad as quantum. I'd go with Maxtor - their RMA policy is the best. WD's warantee may be better, but I honestly think their RMA policy is pretty bad. They may have changed it recently. The only other alternative I am likely to find at a local shop appears to be Maxtor, and both the specs and the warranty are not as good for the Maxtor as they are for the WDC units. WD and Maxtor are pretty similar as far as quality goes (I believe), the only one to avoid that I've found is IBM and their dexstar (sp?) drives... they're using some kind of material that doesn't stand up well to continued use. We've tried to RMA some drives here that fell under this and they said no, due to the fact that their Tech Specs say .. 3000 hours a month or something like that. My motherboard has a High-Point HPT370 ATA controller built-in. Does anyone know if this controller works with Linux? Do I need a special driver? Are there any special tweaks I should use to make it perform well? I have never even hooked anything up to it before now. Mine works fine with the 2.4.?? kernel (I can check the exact rev when I get home) - I didn't have to do much special other than turn it on when I recompiled the kernel. I think I have a 13G SCSI drive at home you could borrow for the show if you'd rather go that way. It's 68 pin. Let me know Ben -- To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. ~ Sun Tzu * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
Re: ATA disks and controllers (was: Hoss Traders)
On Wed, 1 May 2002, at 12:19pm, Ben Boulanger wrote: Western Dig. used to be the choice disk maker, however recently they've been suckin' as bad as quantum. What do you mean by sucking? That's rather vague. :) I'd go with Maxtor - their RMA policy is the best. WD's warantee may be better, but I honestly think their RMA policy is pretty bad. They may have changed it recently. I've had to RMA drives to all manner of manufacturers, and WDC didn't seem any worse (or better) than the others. I'm more interested in the fact that WDC will RMA the drive for two years longer than Maxtor will. 3-year vs 5-year warranty. We've tried to RMA some drives here that fell under this and they said no, due to the fact that their Tech Specs say .. 3000 hours a month or something like that. Someone recently made a big stink about the fact that IBM published specs that give the duty cycle the drive is tested for. All manufacturers make that sort of assumption when they come up with their MTBF ratings for desktop drives; IBM just made it obvious. The warranty period should not be affected; if IBM gave you static about that, complain to your sales rep. If they still won't budge, complain to the BBB. Mine works fine with the 2.4.?? kernel (I can check the exact rev when I get home) - I didn't have to do much special other than turn it on when I recompiled the kernel. Okay, that sounds promising. I think I have a 13G SCSI drive at home you could borrow for the show if you'd rather go that way. It's 68 pin. Let me know No, I need a new drive anyway. But thanks. :-) -- Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not | | necessarily represent the views or policy of any other person, entity or | | organization. All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
Re: ATA disks and controllers (was: Hoss Traders)
On Wed, 1 May 2002, Benjamin Scott wrote: What do you mean by sucking? That's rather vague. :) A bunch of us here are hardware geeks - what exactly that means.. hell if I know, but - what it results in is that we're responsible for a lot of hardware where we work and where we play... we started tallying everything we'd been fixing, etc... and we all have had the most issues with WD hard drives... be it bad sectors or out and out failures. Maxtor -was- up there, but they've since dropped back. I'm more interested in the fact that WDC will RMA the drive for two years longer than Maxtor will. 3-year vs 5-year warranty. How many drives have you had fail after 3 years that you actually RMA'd? Just curious - it's never happened to me. In 3 years, drives will have become so cheap and advanced in a number of ways that it just makes sense to upgrade... just my opinion.. Someone recently made a big stink about the fact that IBM published specs that give the duty cycle the drive is tested for. All manufacturers make that sort of assumption when they come up with their MTBF ratings for desktop drives; IBM just made it obvious. The warranty period should not be affected; if IBM gave you static about that, complain to your sales rep. If they still won't budge, complain to the BBB. I agree, you've got to do something but the BBB really isn't much of a force. It doesn't hurt to do it, but.. Again, this would be opinion:) Check out slashdot - I think they had it on there... we're not the only ones here. The drives are just failing... even if some people are getting RMA's, the drives are still junk, and can't be run in a production system reliably.. why would I want to pursue it more, spend more time (time = money) rather than just take the whack on the knuckles and say 'Sorry, IBM drives are off the list. Lets buy these other ones.' It doesn't hurt to hunt down the RMA (if they're being difficult) when you have time, but ... who has that? -- Like playing a harp before a cow... * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
Re: ATA disks and controllers (was: Hoss Traders)
On Wed, 1 May 2002, Benjamin Scott wrote: I'm more interested in the fact that WDC will RMA the drive for two years longer than Maxtor will. 3-year vs 5-year warranty. I dunno; a five-year warranty on a hard drive strikes me as being akin to the warranty on a $5.95 calculator I saw once: free, but please include $10.00 SH. After five years, odds are good you could replace the hard drive multiple times over with whatever the trailing edge in hard drives is. Heck -- some seven years ago, I lost a bet that hard drives wouldn't hit $300/GB in a certain timeframe (I was off by a month or two); now it's darn close to a DOLLAR a GB. Which is just obscene. ;-) $.02, -Ken * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
Re: ATA disks and controllers (was: Hoss Traders)
- Original Message - From: Ken Ambrose [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Benjamin Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Greater NH Linux Users' Group [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 6:43 PM Subject: Re: ATA disks and controllers (was: Hoss Traders) darn close to a DOLLAR a GB. Which is just obscene. ;-) No, what is obscene is that I paid TWO DOLLARS per MEGABYTE for a 500 MB Fujitsu drive back in 1994. What I could do with that grand now if i still had it! Oh well... It was a nice drive and I believe it still runs (although it's been out of service for some time.) As far as WD goes, I refuse to buy them. I had a very bad run a few years ago when the 2.5 GB drives were mainstream. I had about 4 drives that I had come into contact with, either mine or clients', that failed. Two were still under warranty, two were JUST out of warranty (3 years I believe.) Both were replaced, and both subsequently have failed. For those keeping score, that is EVERY SINGLE WD drive that I have seen has failed. Other drives I have from Conner, Seagate, Fujitsu, Maxtor, and yes, even IBM are still running fine. Even my 4 60GXPs are all still running (knock on wood.) Rich Cloutier President, C*O SYSTEM SUPPORT SERVICES www.sysupport.com * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
