query: new disk drive for VAX

[Jeff Siegal]

In article <1988Oct6.181050.788 at utzoo.uucp> henry at utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <10199 at eddie.MIT.EDU> nessus at athena.MIT.EDU (Doug Alan) writes:
>>Why spend big bux on SuperEagles when you can get 800 Meg, high speed
>>5.25-inch Winchesters these days for $3,300 each?
>Reliability.

Our experience with the Maxtors has been very good.  While we've only
been using them for about 6 months, none have failed at all (we have
quite a few; I'm not sure of the exact number now).  Similarly with
5 1/4" ESDI Fujitsu drives (although not quite as cost effective as
Maxtors), which we have been using for over a year.

We do test them when they first arrive, and we have had some minor
problems (e.g. 1/1,000 reads would result in soft errors) which caused
us to return the drive for a replacement.

Of course, we do regular backups (onto Exabyte 8mm tape--also very
cost effective, and occasionally onto 1/2" GCR) and we have spare
drives to swap in the case of failure.  No maintenance cost, and since
the drives cost less than half as much as the "big clunkers," keeping
a spare or two is quite cost effective.

Jeff Siegal