JIM HOLSONBACK wrote in a message to ALL:

 JH> Hello, ALL.
 JH> This seems topical, since a few folk here are talking about buying
 JH> new drives soon.  After reading this, I'm not sure I want any new
 JH> ones. They surely don't seem to last as long as they used to.
 JH> - - -  JimH.

Not if you believe all of what this guy is writing...

I've seen this before.  Maybe there were slightly different models in the
lists,  that time,  but more or less the same stuff.  And the same style. 
Maybe even a copy,  I dunno.  I have a slight problem with some points of
this that make me wonder about the credibility of the rest of it.



 JH> as of 06-19-02

02?  A bit dated,  isn't it?  Maybe it _was_ the same list?

 JH> Visit our home page for expert Data Recovery Services! And... Take
 JH> a look at our new Data Recovery Software offerings!

Right...

If a drive is trashed,  no software by itself is going to deal with that
issue.  Not very likely,  anyhow.  And companies that do data recovery for
a business don't tend to sell software for the same purpose.

What _can_ be recovered from a drive that is working where the supporting
filesystem has gotten trashed is another story,  and perhaps that's what
he's talking about,  but it isn't presented that way.



 JH> This is based on the models we see the most, and conversely the
 JH> drives we see the least. 

What else is pertinent here is how many of any given type are out there. 
If some particular drive models are selling *really* well,  and there are a
ton of them out there,  then there are also going to be more of them
showing up in places that do drive repairs.  But he doesn't seem to take
that into account.  I don't believe for a minute that all of those mfr's
have equal market share.



 JH> desktop drives. There are issues with electro-mechanica failures
 JH> and or head crash on their high speed IDE drives 40GB or greater.

ANY drive failure is gonna either be electrical or mechanical,  no?  :-)

Personally,  I'd put "head crash" into the "mechanical"
category...



 JH> But, you might ask, "What am I supposed to use for duty business 
 JH> use?". The answer is, use what we have used for years in 
 JH> applications and that is SCSI! SCSI drives are meant to run and 
 JH> run an without a hiccup. They are made much better than IDE, using 
 JH> better liqu motors, better parts, and usually better everything! 
 JH> So, the next deciding what to use in a server that you are 
 JH> building, think twice abo

Poor spelling and syntax aside,  this is hogwash.  The *ONLY* difference
between ATA and SCSI drives is in the electronics,  the mechanical
assemblies are identical.  Or at least that's the last I remember hearing
about it,  and I doubt that's changed much.  It may be that higher-end
models will be more likely to be sold in SCSI first,  for server and other
higher-end business apps,  but once the technology is out there a while
then the pricing pressures of the consumer and OEM markets will push the
price of ATA drives downward.

 JH> ... "Bother!" said Pooh, as his system couldn't find his hard drive

Random tagline,  eh?  :-)

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