On 2007/01/18 06:49 (GMT) rallee2{at}comcast.net apparently typed:

>   Western digital can hardly be faulted as a company since they have
sold so many more drives than most other companies and still maintained
failure rates well under 1 percent.  They are acclaimed by every magazine
and hardware website

Not every. Most magazine and hardware websites focus exclusively on M$.
Have you checked Linux web sites?

Traditionally, WD drives conform to a superset of the ATA specs. That
means they do/don't do things that are not in the standard ATA spec. WD
calls (is that called, as in no longer?) their drives EIDE, while no
other manufacturer calls/called their drives EIDE.

WD supplies M$ with special (proprietary) driver workarounds for their
junk (non-spec compliant) firmware.

A sampling of the WD track record on Linux can be found at:
http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/expert/2002-05/msg00948.php
http://zgp.org/pipermail/linux-elitists/2000-February/000211.html
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Ultra-DMA.html#ss9.1

Whether all the above still applies to current products I have no idea,
but I find Seagate's customer service and 5 year warranty compelling
enough reason not to touch WD with my money.
-- 
"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
						John 10:10 NIV

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata  ***  http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/


 
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