Hard Disk questions

[Thad P Floryan]

Yong Ren asks about replacing the stock 20MB Miniscribe HD in his UNIXPC with
a Seagate ST251-1 ...

The ST251-1 installs easily.  No need to change power supply, cover, etc.  I've
done several of these installations for friends and all went smoothly.

HOWEVER: in light of the general problem of Seagates (ref. the "non-spin" due
to overlubrication of the platters during assembly causing "stiction"), and
considering the price differential of an ST251-1 vs., say, a Miniscribe 3085,
you get more value for your $$$, more storage, and faster access for only
about $200 more (NOT including the cost of a WD2010 chip (approx. $45)).

Using the prices quoted in various dealers' ads in the daily San Jose Mercury
News (Silicon Valley) as an example, the Seagate ST251-1 is around $390 and
the Miniscribe 3085 is $590.  Additionally:

				Seagate ST251-1		Miniscribe 3085

Heads					6			7

Cylinders				820			1170

Access time (per mfr).			28 mS			22 mS

MB, formatted (std, 17 sec/trk)		42.8			71.2

MB, formatted (UNIXPC, 16 sec/trk)	40.3			67.1
(ignoring the spare sec per track)

MB, avail on UNIXPC assuming a 5MB	35.3			62.1
swap partition (multiuser standard)


Note that you'd need to change the WD1010 HD controller chip to a WD2010, and
format using the "new" diagnostic disk to get full utilization of the 3085.

Some other choices (also NOT requiring a power supply or cover change) include
some 3.5" HDs with capacities up to 100MB.

Thad Floryan [ thad at cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]