Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!amdahl!pacbell!att!ihnp4!ihlpl!reza0
From: reza0@ihlpl.ATT.COM (H. Reza Zarafshar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Hard disk problem
Message-ID: <6339@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Date: 19 Aug 88 14:25:55 GMT
References: <20173@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 38

In article <20173@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, msriram@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (M.G. SriRam) writes:

>I have a WYSE PC AT compatible, 12.5 MHz and i installed a SEAGATE ST225 
>hard disk in it.
>It worked very well for about 5 months and then it intermittently refused 
>to boot from the hard disk.  ie, afte counting up RAM it would hang. 
>Also, when it did come up I would get 'sector not found' errors.
> The technical person at the place where i bought the hard disk told me 
>that there was nothing wrong with the hardware, and that doing a low-level 
>format on the disk would fix the problem. he also said that such a format 
>should be done as a routine every so often, eg every 9 - 12 months. however, 
>i am not fully convinced about this. what do you think? does it make sense?

I used to work for a company that sold pc's and they put lots and lots of
hard disk drives in the machines they sold ( on the order of 100 or so a
week).  We found the Seagate ST-225 to have the worst track record of any
of the disks we dealt with.  The problem we encountered with them was exactly
what you are saying.  They would work fine for a few months and they would
refuse to boot, which we thought was heat sensitive because on the cold
machines, if we let them sit turned on for a while, they would then boot
by pushin the reset or the 3 finger salute of ctrl alt del.  We saw some
that would not boot when they were warm also, but would boot if cold.
I really think that this is typical of all Seagates, I am basing this
on our experience with them.  

I do not believe that just low level formatting is a good solution.  We
did try that route and the owner of the computer would come back next
week "shouting" at us.  We found the best solution to be just replacement.

If your dealer is not willing to replace it, I would get a hold of
Seagate and have them direct replace it.  One thing you want to try and
accomplish is getting a new drive not a recondiotioned one, although
I am not sure if you can be very successful in that since your warranty
probably gives the right to manufacturer for replacement with a 
reconditioned one.

Reza Zarafshar,
ihnp4!ihlpl!reza0
(312)979-5104