cheap hard drive source

[Howard E. Motteler]

Cascade Electronics is selling refurbished seagate drives for what
looks like some really good prices. I just orderd a 4096 from them,
and it arrived in 5 days (UPS ground).  MFM drives (which should all
work with the UNIX PC's controller) that they have are

st-225		20 meg	hh	65 ms	$160
st-125		20 meg	hh	28 ms	$175
st-138 		30 meg	hh	28 ms	$230
st-151		40 meg 	hh	40 ms	$315
st-251		40 meg	hh	40 ms	$240
st-251-1	40 meg	hh	28 ms	$260
st-4053		40 meg	fh	28 ms	$310
st-4096		80 msg	fh	28 ms	$410

These are rebuilt by seagate, and come with a 90 day warranty,
*plus* whatever was left of the origional warranty when the drive was
returned, which could vary from zero to almost a year.  (I know, that
sounds wierd, but that's what Dave at Cascade said.)

Their address is

	Cascade Electronics, inc.
	Route 1, Box 8
	Randolph, MN 55065
	507-645-7997

They've also got a lot of SCSI drives, mostly the SCSI versions of the
above.   They're mostly an XT/AT/386 "clone house." 

I know that some batches of the 225's have had a bad reputation, for
burning out drive transistors and for loosing track 0.  (One of 3 or 4
that we have in old IBM XTs died last year, after about a year, taking
its data with it...)  I've also heard that the st-40xx drives are
very reliable.  I'm pretty sure the st-1xx and st2xx series all use
stepper motors, (I know the 225's and 251's do), while the st-40xx use
a "voice coil"" positioner.  Any of the half height drives should drop
right into a 7300 with no problem.  A down side of the 4096 is that is
needs a lot more current at 12 v. than the half height drives, though
some people have used them with the 7300's power supply.  (The 3b1
supply gives a bit more current at 12 v.)  To stick a 4096 in a 7300,
you need the 3b1 hump top case.  It's probably also a good idea to
feed the drive power directly from the power supply, as is done in
the 3b1, instead of through traces on the motherboard, as is done on
the 7300.

I have no connection with Cascade electronics except as a satsified
customer.  


-- 
Howard E. Motteler       |  Dept. of Computer Science
motteler at umbc3.umbc.edu  |  UMBC, Catonsville, MD 21228